Our culture determines what we like, much more than we think. You notice it when you come across a very different culture. There is a interesting report about chinese design for classic and mobile internet.
It think the following is interesting:
In China, overloaded websites are popular, even when they are confusing and difficult to use. The design need to show that there is life. A cleaner design implies that the service is unpopular.
To the report “Forum Nokia Design Update — China”