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But Mr. Li said our experience “does kind of reflect some problems that China will have as they deal with cultural diversity, pluralism and tolerance.”

In China, differences are defined largely by ethnicity, he said. Han Chinese account for 93 percent of the 1.3 billion people; more than 50 other ethnic minority groups — all of which we might lump together as Asian — make up the rest. In terms of race, he said, “China is not like the melting pot that the United States is.”

The sheer density of the population may also give the Chinese a very different sense of personal space. “Personal spaces overlap,” said Stuart Strother, an economist who has lived in China and who wrote a travel guide, “Living Abroad in China,” with his wife, Barbara.

“It’s not that you don’t have any personal space, but I may have to share your space,” he said. Perhaps as a consequence, Dr. Strother said, pointing at and touching people, even total strangers, is not considered rude.

He added that Chinese society emphasizes a collective mentality over an individualistic one. “They have an idea that we’re all family,” he said, noting that children in China are routinely told to address relative strangers as uncle or aunt. So picking up someone else’s child, even if you don’t know them, is not considered inappropriate.

Shuhan Wang, the executive director for Chinese language initiatives at the Asia Society, said that while Chinese people were generally reserved with strangers and might not initiate conversations with adults they don’t know, the rules for children are different. Children are all affectionately called “little brother” and “little sister,” she said, and, quoting what she said was a Chinese saying — “You treat other people’s elderly as if they are your own, and you treat other people’s children as if they are your own” — she added, “So in a way, everybody in society is extended family.”