In most public situations in Asia, if you show any sort of straightforward emotional response to something that makes you feel genuinely uncomfortable (or even harms you), YOU are the one who loses face, and not the person or persons who may be robbing you of your basic human rights and dignities.
So there's a lot of tacit, passive-aggressive "groping" on public transportation systems like the subway in Japan and in other overpopulated Asian countries. The only socially acceptable response to most offenses in South Korea, for example, however, is the "Korean Death Stare," which is an often rather lame, penetrating dirty look. Well... and getting back at someone behind their back, of course!
The only other time Koreans, Japanese, Chinese and many other groups of Asians are allowed emotions is when they've absolutely, positively, beyond the shadow of a doubt been horribly wronged (so Koreans in particular naturally try to trump up even minor offenses whenever possible to purge all that pent up angst that ALL HUMAN BEINGS HAVE), or when people are full on shit faced drunk out of their skulls. So, many Koreans and Japanese tend to spend their entire weekends (or even week nights) binge drinking, projectile vomiting, pissing and sleeping it off in public places.
The cold, hard truth is that there really isn't much true freedom of expression in Asia. Nor is there much real privacy or personal space. I don't even think these things are even really fully understood by most Asians. All that "homogeneity" and "harmony" crap that is so often propagandized in the West... most of it is simply not real.
The masses are merely lulled into submission by an often oppressive CULTure (which is why communism and other lopsided systems tend to easily establish a strong foothold in Asia). And THAT is the unvarnished truth. And of course, given that everything in Asia is based on, quite literally, "face" value, no... none of the above is really anything that they really want you to know.
