So, where are you from?

The best of part plane rides recently (after my period of constant sleep deprivation) is that they allow me some time to think and reflect.  Invariably, I make some type of resolution out of it, the most recent one being to start a blog :) 

Where are you from?  That's the most common question I seem to be asked these days, but surprisingly, it's also the hardest to answer.  I was just in Taiwan for a long weekend and a conversation while I was trying to purchase a SIM card went something like this:

Girl: [Noticing my accent]  Are you from the mainland?

me: Um, sure.  I was born in Beijing

Girl: Oh cool.  Can I have your Identification card for the SIM card?

me: Sure.  [hands her american passport]

Girl:  ?  But you're american?

me:  Oh yes, I haven't lived in China since I was six.  I've been living in the US most my life.

Girl:  That's cool.  whereabouts?

me: San Francisco area

Girl: Can I have your address?

me:  Sure...  xxx xxx xxx, Singapore

Girl: ...

The conversation is worse when people are actually from China or the US.  Then they find out that I'm really lying when I say that I'm from Beijing [note that i don't say i'm from there, just born there]  since I have no family or any other ties to Beijing anymore.   They also find out that while I have most recently lived in the bay area, I definitely don't associate with the california mentality.

So that leads me to ask... what would be the correct response?  I don't want to lie but this is a much more complicated question than people realize.  "I'm international" should be my response.  Or perhaps to make it simple, "je viens de Paris"

There are plenty of prejudices associated with any of the answers I could give and I don't feel like I fit into any of them.   I know that they're just trying to apply an easy heuristic but I feel like I want to be taken as just me, not someone associated with a location, a school, a social group... I think being migratory is going to give me the chance to do that :)