One of the characteristics of many Eastern cultures is a deep sensitive people are to other people's feelings. For example, one publication, the Financial Times, carried this rejection notice, written to a writer by the overly polite editor of a Chinese economic journal:

"We have read your manuscript with boundless delight. If we were to publish your paper," says the editor, "it would be impossible for us to publish any work of lower standard. And as it is unthinkable that in the next thousand years we shall see its equal, we are, to our regret, compelled to return your divine composition, and to beg you a thousand times to overlook our short sight and timidity."

It would be nice if all rejection slips were so tactful, wouldn't it? Actually most people experience rejection as something c…