Vietnamese ethnicity networks maintenance process in the urban context Case study in Tainan Park,Taiwan

In Taiwan, the initiated policy for receiving foreign workers from the early 1990s has created prerequisite for workers and migrants from the Southeast Asian countries to access Taiwan labour market, including a great quantity of migrants from Vietnam. The appearance of new wave of immigrants over the past decade has created new ethnoscapes in Taiwan society. This paper considers the formation and characteristics of Vietnam ethnoscape in the urban context. The author adopts Tainan Park as public space--an ethnoscape with big concentration of Vietnamese in Tainan city for analysis. Based on geographical advantage factors and traffic convenience, Tainan Park became an important sociospatial pattern of Vietnam immigrants gathering. The paper then analyzes the locations and roles of immigrant gathering places as sites of ethnicity networks maintenance. The author studies the way to maintain directly opposite relationships in Tainan Park context. This park is an important space pattern for Vietnamese ethnicity networks maintenance.     

External affairs and trusted family businesses: A research agenda

In the past two decades, the Journal of Public Affairs has solidified corporate public affairs as a legitimate leadership skillset vital to driving future business growth. Yet, more work at a persistently overlooked gap in the Journal, the intersection of public affairs and family businesses, might shed new light on thriving, trusted, and sustainable business practices. This paper examines the unique contributions of family businesses as trusted influencers. As one of the most prominent forms of business, worldwide, family businesses persistently enjoy unusually high levels of public trust while collectively employing millions of wage earners yet their contributions to corporate external affairs research ostensibly have been largely overlooked. These “silent” community and social influencers offer a potentially new perspective on effective public outreach given their persistent and unique trust advantage. Family business' trust-based capabilities can potentially bring new insights to understanding effective stakeholder engagement, credible communications, and issues management—the sweet spot of corporate public affairs functions. Future research opportunities based on relational- and locational- advantages of trusted family businesses are identified.     

浅谈文学翻译中的审美认识

文中从文艺美学的角度探讨了文学翻译中美的认识、挖掘和再现,翻译工作者应具备强烈的文学审美意识,提高翻译的质量。     

Generating DNA profiles from immunochromatographic cards using LCN methodology

The aim of this research was to obtain DNA profiles from immunochromatographic test devices which have already yielded positive results with body fluids obtained from fourteen volunteers. Three different immunochromatographic cards for the identification of human blood and one for the identification of human saliva were used for this research. Each body fluid was detected using the appropriate immunochromatographic card. The used cards were kept at room temperature for various lengths of time. The membranes were removed at the end of the designated times and the entire strip was extracted using low copy number (LCN) extraction procedure. The extracted DNA was amplified using reduced amplification volume and higher PCR cycle numbers. Autosomal STR profiles were detected using AmpFℓSTR^® Identifiler™ PCR Amplification Kit from Applied Biosystems (AB). Additionally, DNA extracted from the male volunteers was amplified using the AB AmpFℓSTR^® Yfiler™ PCR Amplification Kit. Analysis of the amplified products was carried out by capillary electrophoresis injection on the AB 3130xl Genetic Analyzer. The generated DNA data was analyzed using the SoftGenetics GeneMarker^® HID Version 1.7 software.Autosomal and Y-STR DNA profiles were obtained from most of the cards which were stored at room temperature for up to three months. DNA profile was obtained from all four types of the immunochromatographic cards used in this study. These profiles were concordant with the profiles obtained from the donors’ reference samples.     

Re-Conceptualizing “Legitimacy” for Studying Electoral Politics in Rural China

This paper critically explores and evaluates the theoretical innovations in the conceptualization of Weber’s theory of legitimacy and its application to the study of Chinese politics. It argues that there is a need for a re-conceptualization of the concept in order to give due recognition to the process of legitimating power based on legal-rational principles in the current context. Thus this paper develops a theoretical framework on legitimacy by relating theory to practice in Chinese electoral participation and the local politics of legitimizing rural authority and improving governance at the grassroots level.     

Finance-growth-poverty nexus: a re-assessment of the trickle-down hypothesis in China

Poverty has remained one of the prominent challenges of humanity. Different solutions have been suggested to curb poverty. Economic growth and financial development are two such crucial tools for overcoming poverty, as frequently pointed out by economists. These tools work through the so-called trickle-down hypothesis, which contends that a well-functioning financial system would enhance poverty reduction by promoting economic growth. One country that appears to have manifested this hypothesis is China. However, the empirical test of the trickle-down hypothesis for China is scant. In addition, most of the existing studies have failed to account for regime-shift in parameters or structural breaks. This paper attempts to fill this void by testing the trickle-down hypothesis for China during the period 1985–2014. We utilized two standard proxies for financial development, namely: the domestic credit to private sector by banks as percentage of GDP, and money and quasi money as percentage of GDP; annual percentage change in real GDP per capita to proxy economic growth; and a standard proxy for poverty reduction namely: the household final consumption expenditure per capita growth. By accounting for structural breaks in our empirical specifications, we found overwhelming support for the trickle-down hypothesis at the national level. That is, we found financial development to cause economic growth, which in turn causes poverty reduction in China at the national level. This has important policy implications.     

The changing political economy of Taiwan‐Southeast Asia relations

This paper examines the possibility that the United States could ‘capture’ the Asia‐Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum and use it to impose America's economic agenda on the region. It discusses Washington's ability to shape the choices of APEC's East Asian members at APEC negotiations to reflect US interests through employing its military, economic, cultural, and ideological resources as instruments of leverage and influence. While interdependence constrains Washington's use of military and/or economic leverage to influence the choices of APEC's East Asian members, the complex bargaining and consensual decision‐making features of APEC further prevent Washington from imposing its agenda on APEC. On the other hand, Washington's capture of APEC could be facilitated if East Asian policy‐making elites were socialized through the APEC process to accept American norms. This would tend to lead to preference convergence since the values of both the US and East Asia would coincide. The analysis suggests, however, that American norms are unlikely to prevail within APEC in the near to medium term primarily because APEC's East Asian members consider East Asian norms to be superior. American culture and especially ideology are not sufficiently attractive to East Asian elites and are thus unable to be used as instruments of influence. For these reasons, the paper concludes that the United States will find it difficult to impose its economic agenda on the region through APEC.     

Look Who's Talking: The Impacts of the Intrahousehold Allocation of Mobile Phones on Agricultural Prices

Using data from the Philippines, we study the impact of mobile phones on the prices agricultural producers receive for their cash crop. We first look at the impact on price of mobile phone ownership at the household level. Because this masks a considerable amount of heterogeneity, we then look at the impact on price of the intrahousehold allocation of mobile phones. We find that whether the household owns a mobile phone has no impact on price, but whether a farmer or spouse owns a mobile phone is associated with a 5- to 8-per cent increase in price.     

Hong Kong's Elite Structure,Legislature and the Bleak Future of Democracy under Chinese Sovereignty

A decade after retrocession to China, Hong Kong still has limited democracy. Only half of the legislature is directly elected by the people, and the Chief Executive – the leader of Hong Kong government – is chosen by an election committee of 800 people, most of them loyal to Beijing. In December 2007, the Chinese Central Government announced that the direct election of the Chief Executive and the whole legislature may be implemented from 2017 and 2020, respectively. Still, in this paper it is suggested that real democracy in the foreseeable future is unlikely. This paper demonstrates the existence of a “power elite” of tightly knit business-state networks in Hong Kong society and argues that this constitutes a systemic barrier against further democratic development. Central to the discussion is an analysis of the formation and composition of the legislature and the relations to the elite-interlocks among influential organisations in society. Mainly based on 2006‐07 data, the Elite Database which is subject to network analyses is composed of 1531 individuals holding 1854 seats from 40 listed corporations, 27 government committees, 20 non-governmental organisations, and eight universities.