Where are you from?

When you meet a new person first time you exchange a few niceties, greetings and surely enough, usually within the first 5 minutes of conversation or within the first 5 dialogues this question comes up : "Where are you from?" . How do you feel about such a question? Do you mentally question why the stranger has asked this question? Do you feel saying the answer may be mis-interpreted? What do you think of the questioner in terms of how he/she values who you are depending on what your answer is? What is it in the Chinese culture that places such importance on where you are from physically, instead of your genuine character and personalities, within the first 5 mins or first 5 dialogues? Do they judge you by where you are from rather than your by value as a person from your behaviour and personality? Do you get discriminated or favoured as a result?

Example A dialogue:-

Person A : "Where are you from?"
Person B : " I am from Vietnam!"
Person A : "Were you a refugee?"
Person B : "Ummmm........"

Does person A's cultural and mental value system places more importance in assessment of the Person B is a "refugee" and its impact as a "refugee" rather than the person is a "person" with potential good character and the fact that a "refugee" is irrelevant to good character and social standing? Do you think Person A cultural thinking is : Person B is a refugee so Person A can dismiss Person B as a refugee, e.g. Person A , later talks to another person, Oh! I just met Person B and who the heck is he driving a Mercedes Benz, he was a refugee after all when he came! Or do you think Person A feels sympathetic and caring towards a past "refugee" and wanted to feel empathetic or do you think it is a stupid irrelevant question?

Example B dialogue:-

Person A : "Where are you from?"
Person B : " I am from Vietnam!"
Person A : "Did you come by boat or by aeroplane?
Person B : "Ummmm........"

Does person A's cultural and mental value system places more importance in assessment of the Person B is a "boat - person" and its impact as a "boat person" rather than the person is a "person" with potential good character and the fact that a "boat person" is irrelevant to good character and social standing? What do you think why Person A, typical Asian, asks such a logically irrelevant question very early in a conversation?

Example C dialogue:-

Person A : "Where are you from?"
Person B : " I am from Hong Kong!"
Person A : "But you sound with an accent from the mainland"
Person B : "Yes, but I have lived in Hong Kong for 10 years now"
Person A : "So you are not from Hong Kong after all."
Person B : "...........sic!"

Is Person A's probing question established prejudice? Bearing in mind , this dialogue took place within the first encounter in a dialogue between strangers who have just met?

Example D dialogue:-

Person A : "Where are you from?"
Person B : " I am from China!"
Person A : "How do you afford to study abroad?"
Person B : "My parents paid for me."
Person A : "How so? I hear that the average wage in China is just US$50 per month"
Person B : "Not everyone earns that amount of money!"

Is Person A's question trying to establish the fact that his expectation is that a person from China has low income? What has that got to do with Person B standing in front of him?

Example E dialogue:-

Person A : "Howdy?"
Person B : "I am cool!"
Person A : "How do you like the beer here?"
Person B : "Great, but I prefer the beer chilled much more."
Person A : " So do I, so I don't come here so often, I usually go the bar a block away..."
Person B :"Really, what else do you like about that bar?"

Do you feel more comfortable with this dialogue , as an example, where there is no loaded question upfront early in the dialogue? Or do you feel it is absolutely right to and fair to ask such a question early in a dialogue, after all, if you know where a person came from you can either be cautious of such a person or be more friendly with such a person!