In Chinese culture, it wouldn't occur to kids to question or talk back to their parents. In American culture, kids in books, TV shows and movies constantly score points with their snappy back talk. Typically, it's the parents who need to be taught a life lesson - by their children.

I am an American, steeped in American values. But I know on an emotional level what it means to be of the Chinese culture.

They should."

"Should be like a wood bee," she said.

It was a private joke, a mocking appreciation of the slipperiness of even the simplest hope, a nonce catchphrase like so many others lifted from favorite movies or TV shows that served as a rote substitute for conversation and bound them like shut-in twins, each other's best and, most often, only audience.

I never have kids in movies or in TV shows.

The Chinese culture belongs not only to the Chinese but also to the whole world.

There's nothing in Chinese culture that is an equivalent of the geisha. It's so different, so special to Japan.