Pixar's dumpling short "Bao" is polarizing audiences with cultural themes

I may not count since I live in a very Asian community, but I don't think that the reason why people didn't get it was because of some cultural coding. People didn't get it because they didn't understand how the short was trying to communicate the message. I've been to movies in the past where I was crying while others in the audience were laughing at a tender moment. You have to understand that when a mainstream audience watches a movie, you're going to have a lot of people who don't have great familiarity with the language of film. Those people aren't likely to understand everything that happens if you do more complicated reveals like this. How many people understood Mulholland Drive on the first view?

It didn't help that it had some unintentionally (?) disturbing imagry. And the scene where the mother eats the bao child is also very ambiguous, as the article mentions.

But the employment of a white, mostly male perspective throughout most of American movie history means audiences have been weaned to expect one set of values for years.

In other words, people's brain cells have been roasted? If there really was a lot of such reactions, probably, but I doubt it is justified to push all responsibility to Hollywood in the age of the internet.

Anyway, there is absolutely nothing in this short that requires any awareness or knowledge of foreign culture, just the ability to connect dots and empathy.
I can image groups of teenagers planning to watch the Incredibles wouldn't care much about a sentimental short, but there is no excuse for not understanding what was going on. So talking about a polarizing cultural divide serves merely as an excuse and there is no need to support that notion any further.

Another article that tries to drum up controversy by cherry-picking from idiots on Twitter.

That's because people care too much about the very little.