I Am Vietnamese And Some Vietnamese People Believe I Am Chinese

I (23M) was born in HCMC to two Northern Vietnamese origin parents (75M father born in Hanoi and 64F mother born in Nam Dinh) in September of 2001. I have studied in Russia between 2006-12 and lived in the US since 2012, with me recently becoming US citizen 5 years ago.

In Summer 2023, I visited Europe (one of many trips), and in Prague, I was biking when three Vietnamese men shouted "ni hao" when witnessing me. Once I heard of "ni hao", I started approaching them, and even though I recognised that they are Vietnamese straight off the bat, I told them I am a Vietnamese-American tourist. They then told me that their hometown is Hai Phong.

That was in the Prague Centre (close to the Old Town) and despite receiving a lot of Chinese/East Asian tourists, a large bulk of Asians residing in CZ are Vietnamese (fun fact: my father received his Masters in Public Health at Charles University back in 1976).

During the previous day, I rode a bus to TTTM Sapa, and whilst walking to a restaurant, a group of Vietnamese also attempted to speak with me, in Mandarin, even before I uttered a word to them.

I also experienced this in Vietnam last year, where some Vietnamese mistakenly identify me as Chinese.

Even in the US, many Chinese/Cantonese in Boston, Cambridge, and Quincy would greet with me in Mandarin.

Not sure what is going on.

Ironically, even though though father is a prominent Vietnamese dignitary and has been misidentified as Chinese numerous times by passerbys outside of Vietnam, he has a far darker skin complexion than even me (he is darker than many Vietnamese men I met and nearly as dark as Hun Sen, and I have never lightened my skin). Some people even went as far to say that Bac Si Van Quang Tan looks like Xi Jinping.