Cimorene

I both agree and disagree with you on this topic.

It is true that there are very big differences in Western and Asian story-telling, differences that might make it hard for someone from one culture to understand a work of art from another culture. Even in countries as culturally close as England and Germany there are still cultural differences that, if an English text gets translated into German, might literally get lost in translation. (Best example is Terry Pratchett - you don't understand a quarter of the jokes he makes in "Going Postal" if you've never been in an old English post office.)

I also agree with you that there are dramatic differences in associations to something we read.

Yet, I do believe that you are not only allowed to "forget that you are looking through a window into an alien worldview", in some cases you are supposed to do exactly that.

As a reader, you not only receive a text, you actively recreate it by using your own background and experiences.
I believe that reading is, first of all, a way for you to understand your own world or life better. You can read an old story, know as much as there is to know about its historical context and therefore understand why the author wrote that story at that point in his life - but I think the thing that emotionally involved you first in the story, the reason that made you read it in the first place, is that you personally get something out of it.

I do believe that it is always helpful (and occasionally necessary) to know a story's cultural/historical/social background to fully appreciate it - but I also believe that it's everyone's right to get emotionally involved with a story, even if it means applying your own cultural preconceptions, because you cannot fully "get into" a story if you always have to remember that you're reading a text that was written in an alien culture and that you therefore shouldn't get any meaning out of unless you know the culture it comes from very well.