When I was in Beijing in the 80s and studying Mandarin, one of the first things I understood in Chinese was when my driver and I were passing the scene of an accident. An intense cluster of Beijingers stood around. I asked, "What happened?" And my driver said, "To me, there is no connection (meo guanxi.) To make a sweeping generalization, the Chinese can be remarkably passionate about people in their clan. But if it's a stranger, and there's no connection, they have no interest.