Welcome to Asia

“Welcome to Asia” I said to my friend as we walked through the corridor leading to the Cathay Pacific lounge, and we were still at LAX!

I’ve lived in Asia for a couple of years, and have had close lifetime family relationships with Japanese and Koreans, and yet I am continually struck by the way the ambiance changes — almost the air you breathe — when you simply open a door and enter an enclave that is decidedly Asian — no matter what continent or country you’re in.

It immediately made me think about the simple acts we perform every day. Anyone who’s read the most basic etiquette books on traveling or doing business in this part of the world knows about handing and accepting a business card with two hands. But, do many of us wonder why? We just know it’s polite, and we do it in return.


That simple act of using both hands — handing me my menu on the plane, giving me my landing cards, and offering my coffee on the tray — signified so much to me. I think it symbolizes the effort, the intention of respect, the importance of your connection and relationship to that person.

There’s a small, but extraordinarily important quality to those acts. Somehow, it conveys the idea that the giver is doing nothing else at the moment but relating to you. And, it makes me think of the enormous importance of gift-giving in Japan, and the way in which families and friends relate to countrymen when they leave their home countries and come to the United States. From the tiniest act to the most grand, relationships with each other is what it is all about.

- Charlene