Where do you come from?

Option D: Which city or state in Australia do you come from?

Dr Chiang picked option C. He believes it is the only option.

The Chinese Australian community itself is very diverse, just as diverse as all the options to interpret a question (if not more) and it's a community that cannot easily fit into one box. This is also a challenge for leaders in the Chinese community only too aware of the challenges when trying to mobilise the community for common interests or to lobby government.

Early Chinese immigrants came in a trickle, dating back to the foundations of the British colonies in Australia, then a rush - the Gold Rush attracted a large wave of Chinese to Australia in search of gold. Numbers declined following Federation as the White Australia policy encouraged discrimination against Chinese. That racist policy was abolished in 1973, in time for new waves of Chinese migration from Cambodia and Vietnam under humanitarian programs and skilled or business migrants from Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, and Taiwan. More recently, people from mainland China grew to become the biggest group of Chinese migrants to Australia.

These shifts complicate the matter of identity as there are many second, third, fourth and even fifth generation Chinese Australians with varying degrees of connection to their Chinese heritage.

The Chinese Australian community is expanding rapidly and, according to the 2011 census, four per cent of our population reported Chinese ancestry. Mandarin has recently overtaken Greek as the second most commonly spoken language at home in Melbourne.

With such diversity, not all "Chinese Australians" feel the same way when being asked their identity. In fact, how the question is perceived depends how the question is delivered, as well as the person who is receiving the message.

When a group of diverse Chinese was congratulated that they "spoke very good English", some saw it as a compliment, some thought it was derogatory - and there are also those who thought the comment aimed to highlight their incompetency in the language.

For a multicultural society to work, tolerance and respect must come from both sides.

So, where do you come from?