"Which part of China are you from?"

[吳山。]

I often speak to Chinese tourists from all corners of the mainland, and I always want to know exactly where they're from. Trouble is when I phrase this question in a simple way 你来自哪里 they often look confused and say 'China'. So I try to be more specific, saying something like 你来自哪个城市? But I get the impression this is not a natural way to phrase it. Can someone tell me how best to phrase this question?

[anonymoose]

你来自中国哪里？

你是中国哪里来的？

[JustinJJ]

This annoys me also. Chinese people ask each other ”你是哪里的？“, and the answer is always their home city, when I ask it the answer is usually 中国. You might think that point would be pretty clear since the conversation is in Chinese. I asked someone why I get a different answer (i.e. 中国) to when Chinese ask each other and I was told that it is because I should be asking “你是哪儿的”. To be honest I'm not sure why that would make the question clearer.

 

In Australia it's slightly more challenging since if I phrase the question like 你来自中国哪里 often people from Taiwan or HK want to tell me they are not "from China", so as a bit of a joke I'll then ask something like 你来自大中华哪里？ I suspect that if you do not look Chinese (strangely the majority of people think I am 混血 for some reason), you might always get the 中国 reply, but happy if someone has found a fail-safe solution...

[Tianjin42]

I usually go with “你是中国什么地方人？” if I would like to know the hometown.

Feel free to correct if that is wrong.

[tooironic]

I feel 你是中國什麼地方人 is a tad 囉嗦 ("long-winded").

 

I think anonymoose's suggestions are pretty good. The key thing to remember is that "where in China/what part of China" is simply translated as 中國哪裡.

 

Consider also 你的[家鄉/老家]在哪裡？("Where is your hometown?"). Slight difference between the two though - 家鄉 is hometown, while 老家 can refer to either one's hometown or the home of one's ancestors.

 

I also find it funny how Chinese usually answer "Where are you from?" with the most unhelpful answer - China. But I think generally if I ask in Chinese they will tell me at least the province name, and sometimes the city/county. I think a lot of the time they just worry that I won't have heard of their hometown. Quite often Chinese people will only tell people the name of their province's most well-known city for convenience's sake - and not just when conversing with laowai, but with their fellow countrymen as well.

[Tianjin42]

Yes perhaps.

I try to be precise after also getting a lot of "China" as an answer. It is funny: in the middle of Beijing, speaking in Chinese to someone I have known for some time; and after asking where they are from, receiving the answer - "China".

[skylee]

so as a bit of a joke I'll then ask something like 你来自大中华哪里？

It doesn't sound very funny.

[skylee]

This thread is relevant → http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/26210-where-from/

It seems that it is not easy to cater for the different expectations of different people asking the question.

[吳山。]

Glad to hear I'm not the only one! I wonder what is getting lost in translation. Sometimes I wonder if they're just trolling me.

[Nathan Mao]

I understand the frustration: you want to have more precise communication, and you want to know if there is a phrase that will elicit the exact response you are looking for.  When it fails, it is natural to think one strong possibility is you asked the question wrong.

 

But the Chinese language is extremely context-based.  Sometimes it just isn't possible to ask a question precisely enough to get the exact answer you want without sounding overly formal or stilted.

 

In the case of talking with Chinese people, who knows what they are thinking？  Perhaps they think you won't know what their hometown is, or their province.  Maybe they are trying to make a joke (lots of Chinese people are 贫嘴, and the archetypical Beijing man always speaks with some dry humor). Depending on where you are, maybe they think you are trying to determine if they are actually Chinese people or not...Beijing attracts people from all over Asia.  I would certainly be willing to bet that any Asian you encounter in Beijing is from Beijing, but I would certainly lose that bet every once in a while.

 

True story.  Hopefully amusing.  My first trip to Beijing, I wanted to get the 4 Big Chinese Novels.  I went into the 北京大学书店 and looked around, but couldn't find them.  So I rehearsed what I wanted to ask in my head, walked up to the only Chinese person in sight, and said in flawed, accented Chinese, something like：　请问，你可不可以帮我告诉我那本中国文化四个大小时在哪儿？

He paused a second, and said, in perfect British English, "I'm terribly sorry, but I'm not from China."  So there you have it.  I managed to find the one ethnic Chinese individual in a city of 17 million people who didn't speak any Chinese.

 

But if it takes two or even three questions to get the answer you want, so what?

Looking on the positive side, it gives you a chance to have more native-language interaction with a native speaker!

So have a series of questions ready:

你哪儿的人？ or 你从哪里来？

哪个省？

哪个城市？ 离 _____ 多远？

哪里长大？

老家在哪儿呢？

 

Another (hopefully) funny story.

A few years back, I was attending a Chinese Christian church in Honolulu. The church's attendees were about 1/3 from mainland China, about 1/3 from Taiwan, and about 1/3 from Hong Kong. There was a meet-up of newly arrived people, and everyone was introducing where they were from: “台湾"，"香港", or "大陆".  When it came around to me, I said “我是从大陆来得”.  That got lots of laughs, because it was true: I was from mainland US, but in the context of everyone else's statement, it implied I was from mainland China.  And despite my American accent, it was clear I had learned most of my Chinese from mainland China.  So that joke's humor was 100% from the implied context. Had it been in a conversation with a Chinese immigrant on the streets of Honolulu, it wouldn't have even earned a smile.

[Meng Lelan]

 I usually go with “你是中国什么地方人？” if I would like to know the hometown.

 

I use that too if I do know they are from mainland China. I've heard others use that phrasing so it can't be that long winded. 

[luozhen]

I always ask 你是哪里的人？ when in China and I have always gotten a straight answer. But this is mostly in Beijing, where most people are from elsewhere. Maybe in a province or city with less outsiders, you'd need to ask about their 老家.

[imron]

usually go with “你是中国什么地方人？”

I've been told this can sometimes come across as impolite and it's better to use 哪里 or 哪儿, e.g. “你是中国哪里的”, "你是中国哪里人" etc.

[icebear]

I've been told this can sometimes come across as impolite

Out of curiosity, why? Is it like asking "So where you from, bumpkin?" in English?

[Nathan Mao]

I think it comes across with a suspicion and/or derision similar to "You're not from around here, are you?"

 

Both Shanghai and Beijing residents are pretty arrogant about being the only civilized places to be from.  Everyone else is "外地人", and if someone from Beijing/Shanghai says they don't look down on 外地人, it is with an implied, "They just weren't raised in civilization, bless their hearts, so why look down on them on top of it?"

 

I think the arrogance of Beijing/Shanghai residents wouldn't be so galling to the 外地人 if the 外地人 didn't actually agree with it.

 

So 什么地方  implies you are certain they aren't from around here, but 哪里/哪儿 includes even the location you are at when asking. 

 

Why?

 

That's just how it developed, I guess.

[icebear]

I think the arrogance of Beijing/Shanghai residents wouldn't be so galling to the 外地人 if the 外地人 didn't actually agree with it.

Your answer is partly what I suspected, although this observation made me laugh! +1

[imron]

I think it's just because of the way '什么' can some across as abrupt and dismissive e.g. imagine someone sneering in English 'what kind of place are you from?'.  Note: I'm not saying 你是什么地方人 comes across like that in Chinese, just that 什么 doesn't come across as polite as 哪里 or 哪儿 (note there may also be due to regional variations in usage rather than an entire language wide thing).

[tysond]

Interesting discussion -- so far in Beijing I have sidestepped by using 你是北京人吗?

 

There seem to be three ways this goes for me:

• If they are from out of town, they will usually then sheepishly acknowledge some far away city of 8 million people and be quite happy if I have 听说过 or better still 去过 it.  
• If they are Beijingers, I say "mmmm 老北京", and they are happy I have recognized their superiority and often end up telling me how 外国人 are OK actually it's the 外地人 who are ruining the city.
• And if it's a taxi driver ... for some reason they are always from Pinggu and we end up discussing peaches.

[abcdefg]

Quite often Chinese people will only tell people the name of their province's most well-known city for convenience's sake - and not just when conversing with laowai, but with their fellow countrymen as well.

I do the same thing in English when people ask me where I'm from. I only get more specific if I have reason to think they know the detailed geography of my region particularly well. So often it's only a rhetorical question anyhow; the person asking usually doesn't really care; it's just a way to make casual conversation and be polite.

[fanglu]

And if it's a taxi driver ... for some reason they are always from Pinggu and we end up discussing peaches.

 

That's funny. My wife once made friends with a 'black car' driver, and he ended up taking us to his strawberry farm. In Pinggu.