I was recently at a business dinner with both Europeans and Chinese guests attending. One European guest asked a Chinese guest, "Where are you from?" The Chinese guest looked at me and asked, "Does he want the Western answer or the Chinese answer?"
When Westerners ask, "Where are you from?" they mean "Where were you born?" and "Where were you raised?" But when a Chinese asks another Chinese, "Where are you from?" it typically means "Where is your father's ancestral home?"
This can often be confusing because a person can be born and raised in a completely different place from their ancestral home town. For example, one of Bryan's colleagues was born and raised near Nanjing (a few hours train ride from Shanghai), but his ancestors are from Guangdong province in the south of China. So when the Chinese asked him where he is from, he answers, "Guangdong," and immediately people assume that his native tongue is Cantonese. But in truth, he has never lived in Guangdong and cannot speak Cantonese at all.
Similarly, both of my parents' families have lived in Shanghai for at least three generations. But when asked where they are from, they refer to their respective ancestral homes. Thus, despite being born and raised in Shanghai, having spent two thirds of my life in the United States and having an American passport, I am still expected to say that I am from Ningbo, a town which I have never seen.
(selected from 101 Stories for Foreigners to Understand Chinese People by Yi S. Ellis and Bryan D. Ellis, published by China Intercontinental Press in 2012)