Chinese Adoptees Celebrate Bat Mitzvah

This article was in the New York Times a little over a year ago.  I find it very interesting how the North American public views religion.  No one bats an eye at Chinese Catholics (adopted or biological) – there’ll never be a lifestyle story about a Chinese adoptee in an Italian or Irish American family celebrating her First Communion or Confirmation – but being Jewish is another story.  To many people, it’s still unusual.  This article mentions it as well:  Often, an Asian (or non-white) Jew may walk into Hillel with a white person who is, say, Episcopalian, the white Episcopalian is thought of as the Jew.  Why is this?  The lack of missionaries?