[JohnnyB]

I'm a first-generation Canadian of Scottish descent, and am married to a Shanghainese girl who has never left China. Religion is not an issue between us, as we both seem to be agnostic. Race is also not a problem between us. Why would skin colour be an issue?

The thing that must be kept in mind is that race and culture are not tied together. For me, marrying a Canadian girl of an Asian race would be much easier in terms of making a fit between lives and families than marrying a Chinese girl of any race. There is a big difference in cultures. I've seen many, many relationships not even be able to get off the ground because of immediately running into cultural differences which make people incompatible.

The differences do create difficulties for us, though at the same time we are very compatible. I think the bigger difficulties arise from differences between families, friends and other associations, which put the two of us in the middle. I think a much more difficult question than 'Would you marry someone of another race?' for most Canadians is 'Would you marry someone of another culture?'