@RedPowerLady That is a very good answer. One example can be seen when eating dinner. In Japan and China, the family shares dinner——although each individual has his/her own bowl of rice, all the other courses on the table are shared. Not so in most Western cultures, where each person has his/her own dish with everything put on it. In Chinese and Japanese families too, money is often shared among the family members. My money is your money and so forth. The idea of “me owing my Mom money or my Dad owing me money” is unheard of. The communal bath in Japan is another example of sharing. Sharing promotes closeness and bonding, and this is evident in most Asian cultures. Add that to centuries’ old traditions of respecting the elderly, filial piety, strict gender roles, the importance of the family surname, and Confucianism, and you got very family-oriented Chinese and Japanese families.