While the two factions in-game are divided by Tushui (Alliance) and Huojin (Alliance). I thought it would be a more interesting concept to roleplay as a Huojin pandaren in the Alliance.
The two factions are seemingly more representative of ideologies that while drastically different in some of there teachings, aren't neccessarily incompatible with either faction.
My pandaren character's name is Kaong Redpaw, a pandaren from the Wandering Isle. Despite being born on the Wandering Isle like his father and his father's father, the Redpaw Clan represented one of the last groups of pandaren to leave Pandaria and settle on Shen-Zhin Su.
Much of his clan is still present in Eastern Pandaria within the Jade Forest.
Kaong left the Wandering Isle sometime before the Alliance airship crashed into Shen-Zin Su (around somewhere between WoTLK and Cataclysm) and sailed to the mystical lands of Kalimdor where his family had stories of a race of powerful magic users who possessed the riches of the world.
What do you think?