Chinese turn out for distant World Cup

How I help to bridge the gap

Discovering Beijing through bicycling

However, as people move around more and more, marry across cultures and continents and have children who speak several languages and hold multiple passports, it is getting harder to pigeonhole people to one place.

My story is simple compared to many so-called third-culture kids.

A friend I grew up with in Hong Kong took pleasure in the thoroughly confused expressions people would give her when she reeled off a detailed description of her family tree, which included her Jamaican-Chinese mother, Scottish father, English step-father and various half-brothers and half-sisters scattered around the world.

An easy option for me is to say I am from London. Everyone has heard of it and before coming to Beijing I lived and worked there for three years, so it isn't a complete lie but I am not proud of saying it (sorry Londoners).

My issue is, like many people who have lived, worked and moved around the world, I have never lived in the place I originally and technically come from - Scotland.

I would happily say I am Scottish but the barrage of questions that routinely follows (Where did you live? Why don't you have an accent?) leave me feeling like a fraud.

Another go-to answer for me is Chichester in the south of England where my parents returned to and set up home after the first 18 years of my life in Hong Kong and Singapore.

Don't get me wrong. I love the quaint countryside town next to the sea, but except for my parents and their dog and cat, I have no other ties there.