This timely book offers revealing insights into the changing role of China in world governance as exemplified by the Silk Road Initiative, the People's Republic's first published major initiative for external affairs. Focusing on various aspects of the Silk Road Initiative, particularly those that are largely neglected in current discussions, including culture and philosophy, finance and investment, environmental protection and social responsibility, judiciary and lawyers, the authors explore a wide range of contexts in which China's role as an emerging (...) power in international relations and international law is examined. In the current era of ever-increasing populism, protectionism and challenges to globalization, the authors explore the Chinese philosophy underpinning Chinese norms of regional and international development. Bearing in mind the political and economic uncertainties hampering the establishment of such norms, the authors offer crucial insights into how the Silk Road Initiative could or should be developed and regulated. Given its depth of coverage, the book is an indispensable read for anyone interested in the Initiative and its social-legal implications. (shrink)

Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, journalists and scholars noted differences between Asians and North Americans in their support for public mask use. These differences were primarily assumed to be due d to variations in ethnocultural norms and practices. To better ascertain people’s motives for wearing masks and potential cultural differences in these rationales, this comparative, mixed-methods research examines Chinese and non-East Asian Canadians’ mask use attitudes utilizing online group interviews and a nation-wide survey Study 1, conducted in the (...) early stages of the pandemic, captured an ambivalent, yet evolving attitude toward public mask use among the non-East Asian Canadians, which differed from their Chinese counterparts who more uniformly perceived mask use favorably. Study 2, conducted 2 months later, suggests that both groups primarily wore masks for disease protection- and prevention-related reasons. However, age and education appeared to influence the mask wearing frequency of the non-East Asian Canadians, for whom public mask use was less prevalent and normative. The attitudinal differences in public mask use call for targeted strategies to support mask wearing for different ethnocultural groups, which may be achieved partially through enhancing interethnic understanding on the diversified use of and opinions about masks. The findings suggest that favorable social norms, along with evidence-based information campaigns involving personal appeals may encourage greater mask use by the non-East Asian population. (shrink)

In the history of the world and the history of East Asia, there is a big difference in categorizing people. In the history of the world, for example, people are classified into ‘king-priest-commoner-slave’ or ‘king-commoner-labor’. In the history of East Asia, on the contrary, people are divided into four categories: scholar, farmer, artisan and merchant. This kind of classification started a very long time ago, and it is even stated in Shujing (Classic of Documents) and Guanzi (Book (...) of Master Guan). In other words, such categorization at least existed even before the Zhou Dynasty. It lasted until the Qing Dynasty in China and until the Joseon Dynasty in Korea. In terms of Mencius’ view of these four occupations, they were explained with tonggongyishi (exchange of efforts and goods (fruit of efforts)). According to his analysis, all occupations have surplus and deficiency, and people have very diverse needs and desires. Therefore, it is needed to make up for such deficiencies by exchanging surpluses. In other words, division of labor and trade were understood as a basic principle of human life. There also was a policy to support those who may not be able to generate a surplus. Considering the above results, it is understandable to have Mencius’ yixing 易姓 Revolution and easy to understand the basic framework of the policy designed to enrich people. Mencius believed that such policy was critical in building a good [shan 善] society. (shrink)