Re: Chinese food...
Wow, wiki really does have everything.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Chinese_cuisine
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_cuisine
Does a pretty good job of describing the difference. As to why someone prefers the authentic, I see it as people using food to learn about other cultures. Obviously everyone has different motives behind their preference of food. The 'snob factor' is probably quite large.