Chaya and Bingwen are university students in a newly-begun, cross-cultural relationship. Chaya is Jewish. She is tall, beautiful, intelligent, independent-minded and comes from a very affectionate, noisy and demonstrative family. Bingwen is short in stature, innocent-looking, insightful and self-determining. He is also close to his family but in a much more formal way. Chaya and Bingwen are very happy and comfortable with each other and because each is so proud of - and well-rooted in - their own culture, they see no difficulty in being in a relationship with someone from a different one. When the young couple meet each other's parents, Chaya and Bingwen make a concerted effort to highlight the similarities shared by their cultures. It is by bringing these similarities to light that the differences between the two cultures are spotlighted. Each set of parents are very accommodating and interested in meeting their child's new friend, yet their very actions to show acceptance of this relationship reveal some of the differences that the young couple had not considered. Different Similarities addresses the question of whether differences and similarities between cultures unite or divide a relationship.
