I can only remember one Chinese family growing up in my part of the city. "Mad Dog Lee" was my friend in high school, I don't know why I never really knew his sister. Mr Lee senior was a hoot, ran a fruit and veg store, they had a crazy Chiuahua, aww the memories, they spoke cantoese.

  There was nothing but caucasians growing up until I was in my 20s. Downtown did have a China town. Later immigration went wild. I remember years ago seeing a Chinese girl with thin lips and only little lip shape in the center of her mouth, I thought she was kind of cute, but I never really noticed Asian women until I came to China. Then it hit me like blast. The weird thing is that I've always liked short thin delicate dainty women with black hair and most of my girl friends were tall, short ones were harder to find.

One of my best friends from high school and university was Chinese.  Her family immigrated to the US when she was about 7 years old.  They were from Hong Kong; I guess they got out before and in fear of the handover to China.  Obviously, my experiences with her and her family didn't even remotely prepare me for the people I would encounter on the mainland.

When I was 6, I was living in Spain, in a small city. Once a week, my parents would go to a Chinese restaurant just in front of our building. We liked the food, and the owner always a nice word for us. He often offered me a soda or a fresh lemon juice.

When I was 11, I was in a school with many kids of migrant families, about half of the kids in a 1000 kids middle school. I remember 2 from chineses parents. One kid was a thin but energetic boy. He seemed a bit under pressure to get good grade, but he was always ready for typical teenage mischief ^^ Some made puns with his name, but then, everybody was punning everybody anyway. There was a girl too, she played the badass teenage girl, but under that surface, she would be a peaceful, fun loving girl. Both kids were completely integrated,behaving and speaking like other French kids. At home, I knew there would be some differences, but they would not talk about it, unless you were curious and asked.

At the university, plenty of Chinese fresh of the boat, mostly from Dongbei. Most would live in a Chinese expat bubble, quitting their studies after a couple of months, doing odd jobs, and go back to China after 2 or 3 years. The others, mostly girls, would adapt very quickly to the French way of life while studying, dating a local or a foreign student, getting a degree, and work in France. Those I know in that case *ALL* settled down in a France.

Yes. Worked with some "back home living" Chinese people. Nice people. Married one of them.

Knew plenty of people from Mexico and Venezuela growing up. 

No Chinese people though. 

Back in Austin, my neighbor cross the street is a Taiwanese family. Man I miss Austin so badly. 

Where I come from, 75% of the population is Chinese. Don't miss any of them, sadly.

The village I was brought up in was 100% white Scottish.

There was a rumour once of an English accent being heard in one of the pubs, but it turned out to be a lorry driver who was just passing through.

I do remember being very young and being fascinated by a picture in a book I had. It was a picture of a Chinese cormorant fisherman. It was all very exotic and strange.  Never once did I ever imagine I would one day be here to see it for myself.

The world today is totally different to when I was a kid. And these days change is accellerating. Long may it continue

I grew up in a small mill town on the edge of Manchester & in primary school there was one Bengali boy, Billy (Bellait) Hussain & two Chinese brothers, Cheong & Ping. There were also two older brothers that I didn't get to know until an adult. Their parents had emigrated from Hong Kong in the late '60s & when I met Ping at the age of 5 they owned a British fish & chip shop that they named Kongs (the family name). The only non-British food they served at the time was egg fried rice & Chinese curry sauce. The place was always busy as they made the best fish & chips in the town. 

I went all all through school with my mate Ping until we went our separate ways at to university. He's now a business studies lecturer at a university while his two older brothers still run the family "chippy". They sell more of a range of British style Cantonese food now but still make the best fish & chips in town! It's the first place I visit when I head to my hometown to have a chat & something to eat. They think it's great that I'm living in Guangzhou as the family ancestral home is in Panyu. Took my wife in there last time we went back. She spent ages chatting in Cantonese with them. Funny thing is I speak more mandarin than they do

What's my hometown like now? There are more people of Chinese origin living there but the biggest change is the Bengali population....about 8-10% of the town is now of Bengali origin & there is not as much integration as I'd have hoped. 

Yes, German-born Chinese and one family of Taiwanese living in Germany.

When I was a kid we had German-born Chinese neighbors, lovely people, they have a son with who I used to play during the weekend, we were best friends although the term is not really appropriate for that age.

In high school there was this really hot looking girl, at first I though she was Chinese, but she quickly told me that she is Taiwanese and insisted on that point, at that time I didn't really know about the differences, in fact I knew only two types of Asian people, the Chinese and the Japanese (I was reading manga and watching animes back then), Taiwan didn't ring a bell, anyway she was a really nice girl and we quickly became good friends then... more than friends. I went to college far away and we agreed to break up as long distance relationships are not healthy. We are still in touch, she is now back in Taiwan, never been there, I might one day.

I never met any Mainland-born Chinese before coming to China, these people are radically different culturally speaking from Taiwanese and overseas-born Chinese.