Anthropologist Li Yi-yuan of the Academia Sinica explains that warmth and courtesy, for a Chinese, gradually fade out like the ripples on a pond the more distant the relationship is that he has with someone.
中國人的人情味、禮貌與親切只適用在與自己有血緣、特定關係的親友身上，離得愈遠就愈不在乎；於是對陌生人就產生懷疑和排斥，而有「各人自掃門前雪，莫管他人瓦上霜」的心態。