I would argue there are actually more rules in the West; however, explicit knowledge of them is suppressed by norm and the rules are harder to understand and convey, making drama more difficult.
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we may have different notions of what counts as a social rule here. there are lots of mores and norms in the west but almost no explicit social rules. there are many ways to commit a faux pas but none of them are written down or have formal names or specifications.
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the fluid and implicit nature of Western cultural "rules" shows up quite a lot in our dramas though. RomComs and Soap Operas are basically devoted to exploring the cognitive dissonances created by our confusing and heavily unspoken/implicit system.
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It seems like we have the same conception. You noted there are more _explicit_ rules in, say, Japan (e.g., the senpai-kohai system). My contention is that this type of explicit rule makes it possible to create almost-ritualized drama, with satisfying tropes, etc.
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(As to RomComs and Soap Operas, right on! We have different forms of art which reflect different social norms -- tropes follow rules.)
End of conversation
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it's baked in to the language. "Senpai" is untranslatable and understanding its meaning requires knowing about the explicit social hierarchy it references.
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