You are the bigger person for trying to respect other cultures. +1 to you for that.

Personally, I am more irreverent and have no qualms about deriding practices that are inconsiderate. Especially for cases like the burning of incense because they can cause long term health problems.

In any case, I can always put on my ear phones to deal with noise from void deck weddings/funerals/X'mas carolers, or outright ignore evangelists. However, I can't stop breathing in incense smoke. This is by far the greater evil in my opinion.

For me, evangelism is worse because that practice is deliberately targeted at the society. Trying to influence others, propagating certain values (focus on the family, I love children etc) in society.

Ok I'm going to try to explain this one. Some Christians believe evangelism is important because they are trying to save as many of their fellow human beings as possible. Their rationale is that you will go to hell if you don't accept Christ. And it would totally suck if someone was condemned to hell simply because they haven't had the chance to learn about Christ right? So in their minds, evangelists are doing public service by spreading their beliefs.

Not saying that evangelists are right to disturb others indiscriminately, but you can see how they are coming from a place of altruism. Incense burners on the other hand are polluting the air (and harming the health of others) for their deceased family members and by extension - themselves - when they pass on. I guess it is up to the individual to decide who has the moral high ground.