Hanging Out to Dry Vs. Dryer

In all my life, I believe that we've only used our dryer a handful of times. It was just the way things were around here - we don't use the dryer unless we were desperate.

If it's sunny, you would obviously hang the laundry outside to dry. If it's cloudy or rainy, we'd hang the clothes up in the garage (they put up lines of string to hang clothes off).

Simple.

This was all tipped upside-down when I went to Beijing and met an American for the first time in my very short life! He thought we were weird because we didn't throw the clothes into the dryer straight after the washing machine finished its cycle. Rather, we took the laundry and hung it up in our balcony and on the shower rod in the bathroom.

Even after all this time, I can't seem to work out whether the difference is because of an Australian and American culture clash or whether it's the Western and Asian culture.

Photo from Wikipedia.