Good luck grokking the four tones of Mandarin, it's tough, but doable. I was lucky enough to have been raised speaking Mandarin, though my skill isn't great and I probably have a thick American accent. donw, the traditional characters are beautiful, and easier to remember (though harder to write). But when it comes to China in specific, I've been told that the traditional/simplified character thing strikes up the Taiwan/PROC tension. It's a beautiful language, and there are plenty of movies that will get you to understand that. A girl I dated improved her Mandarin tonalities after we watched "Crouching Tiger," of all movies. However, many of the "mainstream" Chinese actors we're aware of here in the US do NOT speak Mandarin as a first language, and their accents aren't very good in roles where they're forced to speak Mandarin.
"Someone once said that learning Chinese is "a five-year lesson in humility". I used to think this meant that at the end of five years you will have mastered Chinese and learned humility along the way. However, now having studied Chinese for over six years, I have concluded that actually the phrase means that after five years your Chinese will still be abysmal, but at least you will have thoroughly learned humility."
This is a really good essay that I read long ago. My view is... you got nothing to worry about. Between how hard Chinese is to learn, and the eagerness of Chinese to learn English (http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/04/28/080428fa_fact_...) and the fact that even at current rates of growth it'll take decades for China to catch up means English will be the default international language for a long time yet.
Tones aren't so bad. Characters aren't half as ugly as most people imagine; a few years of diligent study will suffice (same as for Japanese, I imagine).
A good question for you, is how has your life as an ABC impacted your relationships with people from the mainland? I've heard that ABCs are looked down upon as being almost subhuman by a lot of Mainlanders.
