[appletango]

..their dress seems to be quite normal.

...you must strike the word "normal" from your vocabulary.

This is a crucial thing to keep in mind when interacting with other cultures. Just because young people all over asia are wearing jeans and cell phones and know the same movies and music as you doesn't mean that they will think and act like a western person when it comes down to important issues...

I don't want to read too much into Me's post, and I'm probably being completely unfair, but the more I think about it the statement that winds up with "...their dress seems to be quite normal." carries the implied message that "they are basically OK because they are now quite westernized".

I'm sure that other people on this board could tell you much more interesting stories than I could about how surprising, challenging, and ultimately rewarding it is when you discover that your assumptions of how people from other cultures are going to react to you is completely mistaken...