Asian culture never ceases to confuse me. Nothing is ever straightforward.
I tried giving a gift to some, as thanks for letting me sleep on their couch. They told me no no no. I asked my friends about it, they told me it's about face.
Omg, I get that honor is a big thing, but it makes normal interactions way more complicated.
Yes when I first moved to the US, people would greet me with "How ya doing?" and I thought they really did want to know. It took a while to understand that it was just a way of saying hello.
I'm told that, in China, a way to greet someone is to say: "Have you eaten yet?" 你吃了吗
You are not supposed to provide a detailed answer such as: "Yes I ate a breakfast sandwich this morning at 8 am".
Instead you simply say "I ate" (吃了) or "Nope" (没呢)
Working in Singapore, I encounter this often (but in English). It took me a few months before I realised that I did not need to provide a detailed answer.
There are concepts though shared by the area. Piety. Face culture. Ancestry worship. Conservative values.
Some areas may have it to a lesser extent (China were the cultural revolution steam rolled everything and only left superstition) but the concepts shared remain the same,the expression of the pattern varies widely.
I tried giving a gift to some, as thanks for letting me sleep on their couch. They told me no no no. I asked my friends about it, they told me it's about face.
Omg, I get that honor is a big thing, but it makes normal interactions way more complicated.