Having been there and done it I don't think culture had very much at all to do with the demise of SQ6.
I can think of a number of possibilities that might have been seen to incur the wrath of the fourth floor and thus produce pressure on the crew but none of those possibilities pertain to the crash of SQ6.
The locals have a very healthy respect for typhoons and since some other operators had already cancelled this captain, who had reached his zenith as a B744 commander and was not destined to go much further, had little to fear, so no culture issue there either. An error of judgement and an error of skill, or so it would seem, could have happened to anyone of any nationality and any airline, but how easy it all is with 20/20 hindsight.