Chinese Always Eat Long Grain Rice: True or False?

There are food writers that would have you believe that long grain rice is absolutely required for the genuine Chinese dining experience. Not so. In China both long and short grain are eaten. China's ricelands are divided between long grain or indica, with 70 percent of the total acreage, and short grain or japonica, with 30 percent. Indica tends to be grown in the south, while japonica is better suited to the more temperate climate of central China. Increasingly though a high-yield indica/japonica hybrid is widely grown. In Taiwan, a hybrid, developed during Japanese rule in the first half of the Twentieth Century, has long been dominant.

Most Chinese restaurants in other countries are Cantonese, so it is only natural that they would serve the long grain of their homeland, and it is to be expected that many people might assume this is the norm in China.