I was born in Canada, I have a Canadian passport, am I Canadian?
Legally, both in domestic and international law, you are a Canadian. Racially, you are human. Science has not been able to find any basis for race. Our racial characteristics come from the genes we inherited from our ancestors. Everyone has a unique mix of those genes, but some gene groupings appear in populations that shared a common ancestory, environmental adaptations, etc. We are all hominids of the species Homo, genus Homo Sapiens. At one time, there were other subspecies that we coexisted with, notably the Neatherthals and the Denisovans. They are gone now, but about 4% of the genome of Eurasions can be traced back to Neaderthals, and in Melonisia and Southeast Asia approximately 46% of the genome can be traced back to the Densovans. In contrast, none of these genes are found in Africans. Many of these genes are what make the appearance of these populations distinct, as they affect skin colour, hair, facial shape, etc. Ethnically, who you are depends upon who you identify with based on similarities such as common ancestry, language, social, cultural or national experiences. So: On the basis of common ancestry, since your parents were Chinese immigrants, you are ethnically Chinese. On the basis of language, it depends on whether some Chinese language was your first language. You were born in Canada and educated (I guess) in the U.K., so you may be far more comfortable in English than any other language, and so perhaps you identify as Canadian (or perhaps English or British) rather than Chinese with respect to language. Only you can say. On the basis of social, cultural and national experiences, it depends on where you lived in Vancouver and how your parents raised you. Vancouver has a large Chinese community, so it may have been possible to provide you with a mostly Chinese milieu when you grew up. My sense though is that you probably werent isolated from non-Chinese, likely went to school with non-Chinese, became fluent in English, observed U.K. holidays etc. If you were raised in Chinese milieu, then you are socially Chinese. If raised primarily in a Canadian or U.K. milieu, then you are socially Canadian or, perhaps now, British. Again, it's up to you. Who do you identify with? Are you socially Chinese, Canadian or British? Or some combination thereof? When someone tells you you are Chinese and not Canadian, just tell them your parents were Chinese but you were born and raised in Canada and are a Canadian. If they argue with you about race, just remind them theres no scientific basis for race theres just one human race.