Activities In China Research Articles

Comparison of Senior Leisure Activities in China and the United States from the Perspective of Cultural Differences

Leisure activities are important in older adults’ life. With the higher mobility and internationalization of population, the leisure behavior and habits of older adults in different countries have become a popular topic among international scholars. This study was to compare the different leisure activities of older adults in two countries—the US and China—to discuss the possible reasons for the differences from traditional and social-cultural aspects. The sample data (192 Chinese aged over 60) was collected in a metropolis in China—Hangzhou—and was compared with data undertaken by Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) published in American Time Use Survey (ATUS). We found that older adults in the US and China spend similar daily leisure time on average; watching TV and walking are the most popular choices of indoor and outdoor leisure activities, respectively, by both Americans and Chinese. Surfing the Internet, communicating with others (indoor) and traditional activities (leisure activities from ancient China, like Taiji, sword dancing, etc.), and physical exercises (outdoor) are the second most popular choices of Chinese older adults; while socializing, reading, working out, and using sports technology equipment for outdoor exercising are popular among older adults in the US. Possible reasons for the differences were discussed from individual differences and collectivist cultures, independent and dependent habits, reliance on family, early education, and the value of young mentality versus conservative spirit.

The effect of capital and labour distortion on innovation

AbstractFactor misallocation has significant effects on productivity and innovation. Innovation is widely regarded as the most important element for economic growth. This article aims to study how capital and labour distortions influence innovation activities in China. We apply system generalised methods of moments using a natural experiment with an exogenous shock. The results indicate that the measurements for factor misallocation are significantly negatively correlated to innovation. The findings have important implications for emerging countries to improve their innovation productivity.

Questionnaires assessing the anxiety alleviation benefits of indoor plants for self-isolated population during COVID-19

Abstract Indoor plants have great benefits to humans, including physical health, cognition and emotion through their repair and purification capabilities, but most of these positiv e effects have not been quantified and valued. In this study, the Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), when people must be self-isolated at home and avoid outdoor activities in China, was utilized adequately and the influence of indoor plants was analyzed via the 2031 valid questionnaires, in which indoor plant status, interest degree, interaction frequency and anxiety alleviation were surveyed. Results showed that indoor plants were widely cultivated especially in the living room. Compared to before the COVID-19, the interest degree with indoor plants increased by ~33% and their overall interaction frequency increased by ~78% during the COVID-19. More than 70% of the surveyed people exhibited anxiety during the COVID-19, and the overall anxiety level was 1.17 (between ‘Slight anxiety’ and ‘Anxiety’). And ~61% of the surveyed people supported that indoor plants could alleviate self-isolation anxiety, and the anxiety alleviation degree was 0.79 (tend to ‘Releasing the certain anxiety’), which showed that indoor plants had also shown to have an indirect psychological effect on anxiety alleviation.

Chinese Provincial Difference in the Efficiency of Universities’ Scientific and Technological Activities Based on DEA with Shared Input

The universities’ scientific and technological activities have become the key link of science and technology and economy, and the core of promoting the national innovation capability and competitiveness. To achieve high-quality development of China’s science and technology, it is of great significance to measure the efficiency of universities’ scientific and technological activities accurately and explore their regional differences. Based on the innovation value chain, we construct a two-stage efficiency measure index system of universities’ scientific and technological activity, and then according to the universities’ statistical data in China from 2010 to 2017, by taking provincial universities as the research object, we exploit a two-stage network DEA model with shared input to measure the provincial efficiency of universities’ scientific and technological activities in China; what is more, we explore the provincial differences in efficiency of universities’ scientific and technological activities. Finally, we extract the influencing factors on the efficiency of universities’ scientific and technological activities using the dynamic panel data model. The results show that there are serious problems in the transformation between knowledge output and results in the universities’ scientific and technological activities. The scientific and technological activities of regional universities in China are not balanced. For provincial universities’ efficiency of scientific and technological activities, there exist great differences among different time and space, stages, and resource utilization modes. The endogenous factors such as policy system and technology service are much more important factors.

Relationship between economic liberalization and intellectual property protection with regional innovation in China. A case study of Chinese provinces.

International openness can affect regional innovation through more export opportunities, enhanced import competition and the spillover effects of foreign direct investment. Many studies have been conducted based on different countries for capturing the determinants of regional innovation, but very little literature is available with contradictory findings for the case of China. Based on 19 years’ panel data of 31 Chinese provinces, this paper analyzes the impact of international openness on regional innovation measured by the number of patent grants. The positive effects of overall trade and a higher proportion of exports and imports to GDP are significant and robust across different model specifications, indicating that an increase in international openness can promote regional innovating activities in China. The causal relationship of all the variables depicted by path analysis matches the results of the system GMM model. Higher intellectual property protection provides each region with the opportunity to obtain economic benefits from innovation and then make a higher investment in R&D activities. Besides, the lag effect of regional innovation capability can also explain a large part of local innovating activities. In our subsample regressions, the positive effect of trade openness on innovation is majorly manifested in developed areas like eastern provinces.

Evaluating carbon emissions of China's waste management strategies for building refurbishment projects: contributing to a circular economy.

This study evaluates carbon emissions of construction and demolition (C&D) waste generated by building refurbishment, using a life cycle assessment approach through a case study project in China. Three waste management scenarios were developed for a building refurbishment project in the city of Suzhou. Scenario 1 is under the business-as-usual C&D waste management practice in China; scenario 2 is based on the open-ended 3R strategy, which focuses on the downstream impact of waste; and scenario 3 considers both the upstream and downstream impact of waste. The results reveal that the composition of the waste generated from building refurbishment projects is different from construction and demolition projects. In the life cycle of C&D waste management of building refurbishment projects, the refurbishment material stage generates the highest carbon emissions compared to the dismantlement, refurbishment construction, and refurbishment material end of life stages. Scenario 1 produces higher carbon emissions than scenario 2, but the difference is not significant in the whole life cycle of the building refurbishment project, whereas carbon emissions for scenario 3 are significantly less than both scenario 1 and scenario 2. The study finds the reason for this difference is that scenario 1 and scenario 2 are based on a linear economy that relies on unsustainable demand for raw materials, whereas scenario 3 is based on a circular economy that uses upcycled materials to substitute for raw materials and considers waste management from a cradle to cradle perspective. This study fills a research gap by evaluating carbon emissions of different waste management strategies for building refurbishment projects, which are expected to be an increasing portion of overall construction activity in China for the foreseeable future.

Study on the Agricultural Air Pollution Aggravated by the Rural Labor Migration

In recent years, air pollution has received serious concerns from researchers, media, and the public sectors, but air pollution from agricultural production activities has not received enough attention. This paper focuses on agricultural air pollution in central China, which is aggravated by the ongoing rural labor migration trend. With a set of panel data released from Hubei and Hunan provinces in China, we adopt the mediating effect model to explore the relationship between rural labor migration and air pollution caused by agricultural activity in China. First, we use the inventory analysis method and principal component analysis method to calculate the comprehensive index of the air pollution of agriculture in 152 counties and districts from Hubei and Hunan provinces, and we empirically test the impact of labor migration on air pollution with a mediating effect model as well as carry out regional heterogeneity analysis on the pollution effect of these two provinces mentioned above. The analysis above indicates that the increase of labor migration has intensified the comprehensive index of air pollution caused by agricultural activity by changing the supply of labor force in the agricultural sector, the budget line of rural residents, and the scale of agricultural production and crop planting structure, but there is a difference in the indirect total effect between the two provinces mentioned above according to our regional heterogeneity analysis. This study is a necessary extension to studies on alleviating and controlling air pollution in China.

The Development of Transformative Agency of Teachers in Teaching Research Activities in China.

Teaching research activities (TRA) in China are practical and reflective research of teachers on teaching. These required activities are meant to ensure quality education and facilitate the professional development of teachers. However, in TRA, teachers encounter many challenges such as low efficiency and weak team collaboration. These problems make it hard to achieve the expected outcomes. W Primary School reformed its activities using Change Laboratory, a formative intervention approach to workplace learning and development based on activity theory. The data collected included seven recorded meetings in the Change Laboratory. The conversations in the meetings were then transcribed into texts. A deductive method of content analysis was used to code the data, focusing on categorizing comments of teachers about the transformative agency. The findings showed the following: (1) There were five types of transformative agencies, namely, resisting, criticizing, explicating, envisioning, and committing to actions. Resisting and criticizing were represented less frequently, and taking action did not emerge as a type of transformative agency. (2) The comments about transformative agency about tools were more frequent than comments about other elements in the activity system. (3) There were some differences in the expression of transformative agency across participants. At the end of this study, the implications for the development of TRA are discussed.

Atmospheric environment monitoring technology and equipment in China: A review and outlook

Accurate monitoring of the atmospheric environment and its evolution are important for understanding the sources, chemical mechanisms, and transport processes of air pollution and carbon emissions in China, and for regulatory and control purposes. This study gives an overview of atmospheric environment monitoring technology and equipment in China and summarizes the major achievements obtained in recent years. China has made great progress in the development of atmospheric environment monitoring technology and equipment with decades of effort. The manufacturing level of atmospheric environment monitoring equipment and the quality of products have steadily improved, and a technical & production system that can meet the requirements of routine monitoring activities has been initiated. It is expected that domestic atmospheric environment monitoring technology and equipment will be able to meet future demands for routine monitoring activities in China and provide scientific assistance for addressing air pollution problems.

The long-term effects of Protestant activities in China

Combining China's county-level data on Protestant density before 1920 and socioeconomic indicators in 2000, we find persistent positive effects of historical missionary activities on contemporary growth. Using disaster frequency as an instrument for Protestant distribution, we find stronger IV results. We further find that although improvements in education and health care account for a sizable portion of the total effects, other channels such as transformed social values may also matter. Our findings acknowledge the pioneering effects of missionary work in China's modernization, and imply that China's recent growth may benefit from of human capital and social values acquired in history.

AcSM 2022 World Fitness Trend Characteristics Analysis and Enlightenment for China's National Fitness Activities

Applying the literature data method, etc., the characteristics of the 2022 world fitness trend released by the American Sports Medicine Association are analyzed, and the comparative study is carried out in combination with the fitness trend characteristics of China's past years and the national fitness policy documents, and it is found that the trend characteristics have the following enlightenment for the national strategy of national fitness activities in China: in-depth through the health concept, establish fitness awareness and motivation. Consolidate the talent base, improve and improve the nation's fitness venue facilities project, widely carry out various sports projects, promote the "Internet + home fitness intelligent construction, promote the integration of sports and medicine, and guide and encourage new sports industries."

ЗОВНІШНЯ ТОРГІВЛЯ КИТАЮ В УМОВАХ ПОЛІТИКИ ЗОВНІШНЬОЕКОНОМІЧНОЇ ВІДКРИТОСТІ: ЧИННИКИ ТА НАСЛІДКИ

The article examines the factors and consequences of China's foreign trade in terms of foreign economic openness. It is substantiated that the implementation of the policy of foreign economic openness involves the transfer of the center of gravity from trade in goods to trade in services, closer ties of foreign economic activity with scientific and technological innovations, improving the protection of intellectual property. At the same time, the process of transforming the model of economic growth in China means shifting the attention of government agencies to investment and exports, which previously occupied a leading position, to domestic consumption and innovation. The main factors that contributed to China's gradual rise to the position of "world factory" and its status as a world leader in foreign trade were cheap labor, providing broad benefits to foreign capital, gradually reducing tariff tariffs and easing non-tariff bars for goods from China on the world market after its accession to the WTO, the development of production and export of constantly updated and increasingly technically complex range of products, as well as the rapid increase in the number of foreign eco-nomic relations. It is concluded that, although the country faces the prospect of deteriorating external conditions for foreign economic activity, including the West's negative attitude to the "Made in China – 2025" program and the US-China trade confrontation, China is working on a strategy for further foreign economic development connections. The need to accelerate the transition to new factors in the development of foreign trade and improve its structure, create new comparative advantages in international competitiveness, the transition from rapid growth to quality growth is declared. To do this, the implementation of the course for "five improvements" or optimizations, which includes: the formation of a wider network of trading partners; improving the territorial distribution of foreign trade and investment activities in China itself; technical, institutional, managerial renewal of enterprises – subjects of foreign eco-nomic relations; optimization of the commodity structure of trade, development of products with high added value; improving existing and finding new ways of conducting trade, comprehensive development of trade in services and goods.

The Problem of the Chinese Revolution in Soviet-British Relations 1925—1927 (a View from Moscow and London)

The essay deals with a comparative analysis of Soviet and British diplomatic activities in China during the so-called second, nationalist revolution of 1925—1927. The author consistently examines the goals and objectives of Moscow and London in the Far East, focusing on the common features and differences of the views and opinions expressed by various factions among power elites in both countries. Much attention is also paid to highlighting the modification of Soviet and British regional policy while taking into consideration the existence of the Versailles-Washington world order.

The Impact of Air Quality on Innovation Activities in China

The Impact of Air Quality on Innovation Activities in China

Artificial Intelligence‐Based Real‐Time Signal Sample and Analysis of Multiperson Dragon Boat Race in Complex Networks

Dragon boat sport is a traditional activity in China. In recent years, dragon boat sport has become more and more popular around the world. In order to face more challenges, it is urgent for athletes to enhance their own strength. Scientific training methods are particularly important for athletes, and accurate training data are the basis to support scientific training. Traditional mathematical statistic methods neither can sample signals accurately nor can they do real‐time analysis and feedback the characteristics to each athlete. In this paper, we use the wearable device with a triaxial accelerometer and heart rate sensor builtin to sample the speed signals and heart rate signals of athletes in various stages of men’s 1000m straight race. Based on the complex network theory, we regard the 23 dragon boat athletes in the dragon boat race as 23 nodes so as to establish a network with 23 nodes and reflect the importance of nodes by measuring the impact of node deletion on the results of the race. The neural network multilayer perceptron (MLP) model is used for training to obtain the optimal combined value with speed and heart rate for each race stage. The optimal value will be used in the simulated race as the target value to verify if it can help to improve the training efficiency. Experimental results show that the optimal value obtained by this method has a positive effect on the results of the dragon boat race which is beneficial to sports training and tactics planning.

Royal Dutch Shell activity in China in the 1950s-1990s

At the turn of the 19th and 20th century Chinese market was attractive to Western merchants. The Anglo-Dutch company Royal Dutch Shell used demand from local consumers to sell fuel and test development mechanisms under permanent political instability and economic turbulence. The practices gained over the previous years helped the company quickly restore work in the region after the end of the Second World War and integrate into the economic system of Hong Kong which was undergoing major changes in the 1950s—1980s. Forced out of China, Royal Dutch Shell had become one of the key players in the fuel market of the British colony, using it as a platform for improving the mechanisms of business in a period of dynamic economic development and a solid foundation for working in the Asian region. At the turn of the 1970s—1980s the Anglo-Dutch group began to restore its positions in the PRC which were lost in the middle of the XX century by consistently gaining a foothold in the promising market that had a serious resource base and increased demand for products of fuel and energy complex. The conditions created by the Chinese authorities allowed Royal Dutch Shell to establish and develop multichannel cooperation with local companies in exploration and production, transportation and storage, as well as processing and sale of fuel resources. The Chinese side acted as a recipient of technology, management practices and investments provided by Royal Dutch Shell. The variety of joint projects and the diverse nature of the interaction between Royal Dutch Shell and Chinese companies in the last third of the XX century became the basis for the bilateral economic relations development at the beginning of the XXI century.

Bench Dragon Ever-living: Using Ritual Design to Shape the Localized Mode of Tree Burial in China

Although tree burial has been proposed for decades, it is not yet widely accepted in China, mainly due to the lack of recognition of its embedded ecological ethics and the not fully localized practice. The article suggests that localizing tree burial activities in China should consider regional urban-rural relationship and combine tomb-sweeping activities with the renewal of local traditional ceremonies in rural areas, thus engaging urban residents. The site selected in this article, Youlong Village of Anhui Province, is located at the origin of the Xin’an River, which is an endowed advantage to attract downstream urban residents. Taking the Bench Dragon as the case study subject, the article analyzes its existing ritual sections and spatial nodes to sort out its ritual structure. Based on this analysis, the article proposes a design of the ritual sections and the marching route of the Bench Dragon for the Chinese Tomb-sweeping Festival, guiding the place-making of tree burial sites and the development of daily management strategies for the ritual landscape. Appropriate ritual design in rural areas can help perforate the evaluation items in strictly categorized cultural ecosystem services, which, through embodiment, calls for a holistic landscape experience. Additionally, ritual design is supposed to activate the potential aesthetic value in the countryside today, while the ecological ethics it carries may also introduce new meanings to the traditional view of life and death in Chinese culture, ultimately opening a new horizon for contemporary rural construction.

"From the Seeds Sown in the Soil": The Boxer Rebellion and the Awakening of Russian Missionary Activity in China (1900–1917)

"From the Seeds Sown in the Soil": The Boxer Rebellion and the Awakening of Russian Missionary Activity in China (1900–1917)

Coordination and Effectiveness of Public Welfare Activities for the Elderly

Starting from the aspects of policy, management, media platform, activity content, service effect and so on, this paper analyzed the current pension public welfare activities in China and found out the existing problems; This paper proposed that through policy coordination, information coordination, management coordination, training coordination and incentive coordination, the public welfare activities for the elderly can develop healthily and improve the effectiveness of public welfare activities for the elderly.

The Social Network and Firm Value

It’s widely recognized that social network has complex effects on economics, politics, law, culture and so on. In China, where the relationship has always been playing an important role, the relationship among actors is of significant importance on economic decision-making, which will further affect resource allocation, enterprise development, and even economic growth. On the one hand, the “economic network” among businessmen may contribute to reducing information asymmetry and transaction costs, improving economic efficiency, and increasing the transparency of public policies. On the other hand, the “political networks” between businessman and politician may create “rent-seeking” and “rent-setting”, which may damage government’s reputation, sometimes maybe even illegal. However, there’s still no detailed research on such questions. Based on the above, using social network analysis methods, this paper studies how different social networks, referred as economic networks and political networks, affect firm value in China. Using the Shanghai and Shenzhen A-share listed companies as the research sample, this paper attempts to answer the following questions: Can corporates benefit from their social relationships? Do different kinds of social networks have different influence on firms’ value? And how different kinds of social networks can influence a firm’s value? Besides, what’s the impact of the anti-corruption campaign, which is launched from the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, on the role of political networks? To answer the questions mentioned above, this paper takes A-share listed firms in China for the period 2008-2016 as the initial sample. After dropping the financial companies and companies with missing variables, we get 14419 firm-year samples finally. We obtain the biographic information, such as graduate university, of businessmen and politicians from CNRDS database. We collect the address of corporates from Wind database, and we collect information about firms’ property right from CCER database. Other accounting data used as control variables in the paper are all collected from CSMAR database. The main findings are as following: Ceteris paribus, a firm’s values is positively correlated with its centrality in both economic network and political network, while economic networks and political networks do have different influence on firms’ value. Specifically, a core position in the economic network is of great help to improve a firm’s value, as economic networks can promote sales growth. A core position in political network is also helpful as it can be an advantage when a firm tries to obtain government support. This paper also examines whether the anti-corruption campaign will influence corporate operation, which may be achieved through social networks. The empirical results show that anti-corruption campaign will weaken political networks’ influence and strengthen economic networks’ value at the same time. The results suggest that the anti-corruption campaign can affect companies’ pricing through different kinds of social networks, which can contribute to a more efficient allocation of resources. This paper makes four contributions to the literature. Firstly, this paper discusses the role enterprises play in macro social system, which is a positive supplement to socioeconomics research. Secondly, this paper studies the impact of social environment and social capital on corporate activities in China, which deepens the micro-research of corporate finance. Thirdly, this paper introduces social network analysis methods from sociology, which can break through the limitations of the point-to-point research in the existing economic literature and promote the cross-learning of different social sciences as well. Last but not least, this paper also examines the impact of anti-corruption campaign on different kinds of social networks and firm value, which is of reference value for the evaluation of China's anti-corruption campaign from the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China.