Sample 2: Please don't call me Shanghainese
Shi Jia was surprised when her follow townspeople started introducing her as "Shanghainese."
Shi claims her hometown is Shenzhen, in Guangdong Province, although it is actually a small town located nearby. "It is for convenience," Shi explained. "Few people know the name of my hometown, as it is remote and small. It's troublesome to explain the location to strangers every time."
However, there is another reason for Shi's deception.
"If people think you are from a wealthy place they will have a good impression of you. It will make you feel more confident," she added. "But if I say I am from a nameless town near Shenzhen, people may overlook me."
Shi does not consider herself Shanghainese, even though she is married and holds a Shanghai hukou.
However, her follow villagers call her Shanghainese because she only goes "home" once a year.
"I think the most important point is where your roots are," Shi said. "To me, after more than ten years of working and living in Shanghai, I have become affiliated with the city. By contrast, my far-away hometown only becomes a concern during Spring Festival."
Sample 3: Where is my hometown?
Unlike Tang and Shi, Sun Yaozu is confused about where exactly his hometown is.
He used to say it was Shiyan, in Hubei Province: "I am proud of the city. It is a wealthy and safe place to live," Sun said. However, he was sometimes embarrassed when people asked, "Where is Shiyan?"
Strictly speaking, Shiyan is not Sun's native home. His father is from Northeast China and his mother is from Hangzhou, in Zhejiang Province. Sun has no relatives in Shiyan, nor can he speak the local dialect.
Even though he studied in Xiamen and then moved to Shanghai for work, Sun does not consider either of the two places his hometown. "Maybe I did not stay long enough in those cities," Sun said.
"If I go abroad, how could I answer this question?" he wondered. "Maybe I will say 'I am from Shiyan, Hubei Province, but studied in Xiamen and then worked in Shanghai.' But it is so long!
"Possibly I will feel close to a city once I settle down, and my parents come to live with me," Sun said. "But it will still be a complicated question, because I have strong feelings about each city I have lived in."
According to a People's Daily report in February 2011, the country's urbanization pace has grown by "leaps" over a 30 year period. Data showed that in 2009, China's urbanization rate had reached 46.59 percent. In 1978, the figure was only 17.92 percent.
As more and more people move to cities with their families and children, experiences like Sun's will remain common. To them, possibly the most important thing is not "Where are you from?" but "Where are your roots?" or "Where is your family?"
