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One thing I've noticed with oversea Chinese in South East Asia is that they tend to say thanks and please a lot more than Chinese from the mainland (At least I've noticed it for people speaking Hokkien don't have as much experience with other dialects). I wonder if it's because they also speak English and got used to say Thank you and Please more regularly.

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Ancient China had tons of courtesy in social interactions, and used to consider other countries uncivilized. The lack of courtesy in Mainland China is due to the communist revolution, which promoted tough fighting mentality to break social hierarchy and order, and threw away traditional values. It's an aggressive way of promoting equality. The revolution is over since Chairman Mao left. Now that the Communist Party is the governing party, the emphasis is hierarchy and order, or in a better sounding word -- stability, so that they can stay in power forever. They try to bring back traditional values, but the revolutionary damages are hard to overcome.

Well stated. To see "polite" culture in China, just watch some old 1930s movies. There are also some modern movies that have tried to copy "politeness" patterns of 1930s and 1940s China, such as Ang Lee's《色戒》.

That's very interesting....would you say it would have been similar to the extreme social politeness of Japanese society? I've always been very curious how despite coming from a similar geographical region that they tend to be on polar opposite ends of the politeness spectrum (yes, some stereotyping here, but let's be honest).

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