I would go even further - it's complete nonsense. I'm going to guess the author never wondered why Americans feel uncomfortable asking for a discount at a store and would rather just not buy when they would've happily bought it at half the price, whereas in many parts of Asia, it's common for customers to ask for what seem like outrageous discounts to a westerner. Norms are highly contextual - in every culture there are things you can ask for and there are things you can't - and there's huge individual variation in the willingness to adhere to norms and the willingness to make others uncomfortable to get what you want.

> [Because of something something Asian culture] My parents rarely had to make explicit asks of me,

It baffles me how anyone with any kind of awareness could write this.