It’s worth remembering that there is no single Guess/Hint culture. Such high-context cultures depend on everyone sharing a specific set of interpretation rules, allowing information to be conveyed through subtle signals (hints) rather than explicit messages.
For my own part, I absolutely endorse asking for confirmation in any interaction among peers, taking responses to such requests literally, and disengaging if you don’t get a response. If a Guess/Hint-culture native can’t step out of their preferred mode long enough to give you a “yes” or “no,” and you can’t reliably interpret their hints, you’re unlikely to have a worthwhile interaction anyway.
With nonpeers, it gets trickier; disengaging (and asking in the first place) may have consequences you prefer to avoid. In which case I recommend talking to third parties who can navigate that particular Guess/Hint dialect, and getting some guidance from them. This can be as blatant as bringing them along to translate for you (or play Cyrano, online), or can be more like asking them for general pointers. (E.g. “I’m visiting a Chinese family for dinner. Is there anything I ought to know about how to offer compliments, ask for more food, turn down food I don’t want, make specific requests about food? How do I know when I’m supposed to start eating, stop eating, leave? Are there rules I ought to know about who eats first? Etc. etc. etc.”)
It’s worth remembering that there is no single Guess/Hint culture. Such high-context cultures depend on everyone sharing a specific set of interpretation rules, allowing information to be conveyed through subtle signals (hints) rather than explicit messages.
For my own part, I absolutely endorse asking for confirmation in any interaction among peers, taking responses to such requests literally, and disengaging if you don’t get a response. If a Guess/Hint-culture native can’t step out of their preferred mode long enough to give you a “yes” or “no,” and you can’t reliably interpret their hints, you’re unlikely to have a worthwhile interaction anyway.
With nonpeers, it gets trickier; disengaging (and asking in the first place) may have consequences you prefer to avoid. In which case I recommend talking to third parties who can navigate that particular Guess/Hint dialect, and getting some guidance from them. This can be as blatant as bringing them along to translate for you (or play Cyrano, online), or can be more like asking them for general pointers. (E.g. “I’m visiting a Chinese family for dinner. Is there anything I ought to know about how to offer compliments, ask for more food, turn down food I don’t want, make specific requests about food? How do I know when I’m supposed to start eating, stop eating, leave? Are there rules I ought to know about who eats first? Etc. etc. etc.”)