Globalization of Checkboxes

Thank you for clarifications (please see the discussion in comments to the question).

This is a serious complex questions. The difference between cultures is usually highly underestimated, especially in the West. At the same time, if I understand anything about world cultures (and I, as a non-expert, pay a lot of attention for those cultural difference and try to read books on them, whenever I can get some interesting information), the state of affairs looks like this: as soon as people get access to Western-made computers and other related systems, they easily associate Western cultural elements with their functionality, albeit in narrow fields (such as computer).

Here is what I mean: in Western society (in a very broad scope of this concept, roughly say, Christian words plus a lot more culturally contacting territories) many people would easily get a clue if they see a cross image on a computer windows. At the same time, a representative of such culture could make a joke if this person sees something unexpected: cross this object or creature with fingers. If we imagine a representative of a culture where crossing means nothing like that but well exposed to the use of modern computer systems (I'm almost sure such people exist), this person will easily get a clue about closing a windows, but may not smile when somebody mocks crossing something/somebody.

(By the way, I'm not trying to associate Christian cross with "close" or "checked" cross. It would be totally incorrect. Most likely, these symbols are independent, and "close" symbols could have its origin in the act of "scratching out" some writing. Naturally, the culture of the writing systems based on knots on ropes would not develop such symbol.)

For example, my Japanese colleague, in Japan, to express the humorous idea "come on, printer, print correctly this time", clapped his hands, but I smiled, because I knew the gesture and some of its meaning. Probably, some Western people would not understand it.

Besides, I knew a number of examples where a different culture reinterprets the symbolic or a meme to be become associated with a local culture. I've read this is trendy in China, where the names of Western products are represented in a way mocking local concepts (sorry, I don't know any examples). But in Japan, a person who accompanied me in a trip to Tokyo, told me in a shopping center: "we are looking for an image of a mouse, it symbolizes 'exit'". I immediately responded: "and what would we look for to to find an entry, a cat?" There was a lot of laughter.

The point here is the functional adaptation to the technical environment and "functional equivalence". In people's brains, symbols are associated with different things, but behaviors are correct in all cases. And technical culture is just a part of culture, and its scopes can be very different.

I have only one practical advice: don't try to "translate" symbols in other cultures, especially if you are not a part of this culture. It's the best to leave them as is. Don't think about drawing a mouse instead of a cross, despite of the limited scope of the cross symbol.

—SA