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Chinese cultural conservatism used to participate in shaping the course of modernization to a large extent. In this paper, I aim to describe a hidden lineage of Chinese cultural conservatism of the twentieth century that is still alive and appears to be more and more influential in mainland China. Relying on several ideas developed by Neo-Confucians of the early twentieth century, Gan Yang's paper in 2007 represented a contemporary revival of Chinese cultural conservatism. More importantly, in recent years, this kind of revival of conservative discourse went through another big change, which not only matters to the self-underpinning of the legitimate basis of the current regime, but also combined with the political conservations related to the Hong Kong protest of 2019–2020 explains why this country is so ideologically different from the West. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the ideology of pro-work conservatism prevails in East Asia, scholars have largely overlooked its discursive construction in media communication from a linguistic perspective. This paper examines the discursive construction of pro-work conservatism in 3,000 Weibo posts with the most "likes" in response to China's implementation of the three-child policy. Using the sociosemantic approach as an analytic framework, the paper finds that three dominant themes underpin the discourse of pro-work conservatism: women's sacrifice in the labour market, the high cost of raising children, and gender-essentialist norms. This discourse is articulated in the posts via a number of discursive strategies, including authorization, morality, and rationalisation. This paper sheds light on the influence of the one-child policy and the awakening of feminist consciousness in the new era and highlights the implications of language use in shaping gender-role ideologies to influence public perception. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This paper discusses the biography, thought, and works of Li Ruqian (1852-1909). He was appointed Consul in Kobe 1882-84, during which period he studied the political institutions and culture of Meiji Japan and the West, eventually translating Washington Irving’s biography of George Washington into Classical Chinese, a book which exercised a great influence on late Qing reformers. Li’s literary theory strongly emphasized the importance of originality. He also cultivated a style that was simpler and closer to spoken Chinese than many of his contemporaries. He eventually espoused a thoroughgoing reform of Chinese government and society. He abandoned the idea of the centrality of Chinese culture for a worldview of cultural relativity in which all cultures of the world are viewed as equally valid. After his return to China Li became even more involved in reform activities, but soon he became almost totally alienated from Chinese society and even began expressing strong doubts about the whole tradition of classical writing. In his poems and prose works, he warned Chinese intellectuals to abandon their smug conservatism and adapt to the new world or perish, making fun of his own society in biting satirical pieces that remind one of the writings of Lu Xun’s May Fourth era. Li Ruqian may, indeed, be the first Chinese author to develop the idea of Chinese inadequacy and guilt which is so common in the literature of the next century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper makes a parallel reading of two recent urban protest movements: the 2013 Istanbul Gezi Park Movement (GPM) and the 2014 Hong Kong Umbrella Movement (UM). As regional centers at both ends of Asia, Istanbul and Hong Kong might at fırst sight appear to be incongruent cities for comparison. Istanbul’s recent past has been defined by contrasting opinions about the city’s post-imperial identity, while Hong Kong’s recent past has been shaped by competing visions around the city’s post-colonial status. Directing attention to the striking parallels between the GPM and UM in terms of the nature of the events themselves, the profile of the participants and opponents, the government response that they received, and the cultural sensitivities concerning the questions of belonging and identity that they rekindled, the paper argues that comparative studies of the new urban protest movements would provide significant insights for discerning the dynamics of emerging illiberal democracies across the world. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study focuses on exploring the factors influencing why companies engage in greenhushing decisions in the cultural backgrounds of China and Republic of Korea. Structural equation modeling analysis indicates that in these two countries, reputational risk not only directly leads to corporate greenhushing behavior, but also exerts its influence through conservatism as a mediating factor. Reputational risk causes companies to exhibit conservatism, which in turn leads to the adoption of greenhushing behavior. Furthermore, tests for moderation effects revealed that, in the Chinese sample data, a transparent information disclosure mechanism has the ability to mitigate the impact of reputational risk on corporate greenhushing behavior, as well as to alleviate the influence of conservatism on corporate greenhushing behavior. In the South Korean sample data, a transparent information disclosure mechanism can moderate the impact of reputational risk on conservatism and corporate greenhushing behavior. Finally, the fsQCA method is tested to derive the different configurations and pathways that lead to the strong emergence of greenhushing behavior in companies in China and Republic of Korea, as well as to identify the most influential pathways. This study provides substantial theoretical support for further exploration of the causal mechanisms of corporate greenhushing behavior and promotion of cross‐cultural comparisons and learning in the international environmental management field. In addition, provides rich empirical support and theoretical guidance for corporate environmental management decision‐making and policy formulation. The findings highlight the further standardization and strengthening of transparent information disclosure mechanisms will be an important direction for future environmental policy development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines China's securities market reactions to publication of the audits of state-owned companies. The impact of audit reports on accounting conservatism is also discussed. Recommendations are made for improving the current system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Management ownership has ethical consequences because it has an interest alignment effect or an entrenchment effect. In this paper, we investigate the ethical consequences of management ownership in China using accounting conservatism as the direct measure of entrenchment and alignment between shareholders and managers. We argue and find that the ethical effect of management ownership differs significantly in firms with different ultimate controlling shareholders. Specifically, management ownership in non-state-owned enterprises (NSOEs) has an alignment effect, while management ownership has less of an alignment effect in state-owned enterprises than in NSOEs. These results show that the ethical consequences of management ownership are moderated by the nature of ultimate controlling ownership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examined the relationship between ideology and conspiratorial thinking and the related mediating effect of ingroup favoritism in a non-Western society. We investigated patriotism and nationalism as two favorable orientations toward national ingroups. We also examined their relationship with the general conspiracy mentality and the specific conspiracy beliefs that have emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic. The results revealed that conservative ideology was associated with conspiratorial beliefs in China regardless of the specific conspiracy theories related to ingroups or outgroups, which indicates such tendencies may exist universally across cultures. Patriotism was not associated with conspiracy theories about the origin of COVID-19, whereas nationalism was negatively associated with the conspiracy theories about China (an ingroup) and positively associated with conspiracy theories about the US (an outgroup). Moreover, nationalism mediated the relationship between ideology and specific conspiracy beliefs during the pandemic. The general conspiracy mentality did not predict conspiracy theories about the origin of COVID-19. The results indicate that believing conspiracy theories is not only the result of a stable conspiracy mentality but is also influenced by ideology and intergroup relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: The introduction of alien species may be influenced by the phylogenetic structure of the native assemblage, while at the same time altering that structure. Understanding these effects sheds light on both the factors influencing naturalization of introduced species and their impacts. Considering regional angiosperm assemblages across China, we ask the following questions: (a) Do geographic patterns and climate relationships of alien species richness and phylogenetic structure mirror those of natives? (b) Has the addition of alien species resulted in stronger phylogenetic clustering as predicted by Darwin's preadaptation hypothesis? (c) To what degree does the answer to these questions depend on phylogenetic scale? Location: China. Time period: Current. Taxon: Angiosperms (flowering plants). Methods: We divided China into 28 province‐level regions and collated native and naturalized alien species lists of angiosperms for each region. For each region, we computed two types of phylogenetic structure metrics [mean phylogenetic distance (MPD) and mean nearest neighbour distance (MNND), and their standardized effect sizes] for the native, alien and combined assemblages, and for angiosperms as a whole, 5 major clades and 10 well‐represented families. We then related these to climatic factors using correlation analyses. Results: Richness of alien angiosperms is highest in regions with species rich and phylogenetically dispersed native assemblages. The standardized effect size of mean phylogenetic distance (MPDses) for aliens was positively correlated with that for natives. The introduction of alien species generally increased phylogenetic clustering of the combined assemblage compared to the natives for large phylogenetic extents, but effects within plant families were mixed. The MPDses was positively correlated with temperature and precipitation for both natives and aliens. Main conclusions The phylogenetic relationships at a lower level of phylogenetic scale may differ substantially from those at a higher level of phylogenetic scale. At the broadest phylogenetic extents, alien species tend to recapitulate the biogeographic patterns of natives, showing similar spatial patterns of species richness and phylogenetic structure, and tending to represent the same major angiosperm clades. This is highly consistent with Darwin's preadaptation hypothesis. Across narrower swaths of the phylogeny, these patterns are less clear, with a substantial number of plant families showing support for the biogeographic barrier hypothesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a common perception that Chinese students are proficient test takers, but less adept at critical thinking. There is conflicting evidence to support this claim. In this article, the author first briefly traces the development of critical and independent thinking in Chinese history and outlines the situation in Chinese education today. Secondly, he presents his personal experience of encouraging the development of Futures-oriented and critical thinking in a Chinese tertiary education setting, via the creation and teaching of China's first extended Critical Futures Studies courses. The criticality component of the program was modified specifically for the Chinese context. An ethnographic approach is taken in the latter part of this article as the author shares details of that curriculum, as well as successes and shortcomings gleaned from the experience. The purpose of this sharing is to assist other Critical Futures Studies educators in setting up Critical Futures Studies courses in China, or in similar environments where Futures thinking and critical thinking have not been emphasized within the culture and/or educational curricula. The article also posits suggestions on how to develop such programs and related critical thinking processes in broader school curricula. Finally, the author reflects upon his/her role as a critical futurist in China, using Inayatullah's (2018) Causal Layered Analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: A predictive understanding of the mechanisms underlying microbial biogeographical patterns is of great interest, particularly with respect to phylogenetic distributions of their ecological adaptations. Here, we test whether phylogenetic information can predict the biogeographical distributions, community assembly and species co‐occurrence of soil archaea. Location: Northern China. Time period: July and August 2017. Major taxa studied: Archaeal communities. Methods: By conducting a large‐scale (transect intervals of 1,257.6 km) study across agricultural field, forest, wetland, grassland and desert biomes, we applied the phylogenetic framework of niche conservatism to investigate archaeal biogeography, community assembly and network topology. We examined the phylogenetic signal based on Blomberg's K to test whether the environmental preference of a given archaeal taxon was related to the phylogeny, corresponding to the degree of phylogenetic conservatism for environmental niches across complex environmental gradients. We evaluated the assembly processes of archaeal communities based on null model and Sloan neutral model analyses. We then explored the major factors that influenced the species coexistence and assembly processes of soil archaeal communities. Results: Soil archaeal taxa exhibited strong climate‐related niche conservatism of ecological preferences. Mean annual precipitation (MAP) had the strongest phylogenetic signal, and this mediated both community assembly processes and species coexistence, with stronger deterministic assembly and less species coexistence in environments with lower precipitation. Phylogenetic diversity was closely linked to the balance of community assembly processes; that is, stochastic assembly processes were dominant in low‐diversity communities, whereas variable selection of deterministic processes promoted high phylogenetic diversity. Main conclusions: We conclude that strong phylogenetic niche conservatism of soil archaea drives their biogeographical distributions. Our findings represent a considerable advance in linking phylogenetic niche conservatism to soil archaeal biogeography, community assembly and species coexistence, and therefore forecasting soil archaeal evolutionary adaptations in response to ongoing environmental changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: Insects are the most species‐rich clade in the world, but the broad‐scale diversity pattern and the potential drivers have not been well documented for the clade as a whole. We aimed to examine the relative roles of contemporary and historical climate, niche conservatism, range overlapping, and other environmental factors on geographic patterns of species richness and phylogenetic structure, for insects across China. Location: China. Methods: We collected insect data from 184 nature reserves and examined geographic patterns of species richness and mean root distance (MRD, a metric of the evolutionary development of assemblages) for different biogeographic affinities (Palearctic, Oriental, and widespread species) and for clades originated during the warm and cold geohistorical periods ("warm clades" and "cold clades," respectively). We related richness and MRD to contemporary and historical climate, area, habitat heterogeneity, and human disturbance to evaluate their relative importance. Results: Total species richness revealed a hump‐shaped latitudinal pattern, peaking between 30°~35°N. Richness patterns differed markedly among evolutionary groups: Oriental species richness decreased significantly with higher latitude but Palearctic species increased, while other groups again peaked between 30°~35°N. The range overlapping of different biogeographic groups in midlatitudes may be an important contributor to humped latitudinal richness patterns. MRD was positively related to latitude and increased more rapidly for "warm clades" than "cold clades." Historical climate factors (especially winter coldness) were among the strongest predictors for both richness and phylogenetic patterns, for each evolutionary group, suggesting the strong influence of niche conservatism. Conclusions: The hump‐shaped latitudinal pattern of insect richness in China is mainly shaped by niche conservatism and range overlapping, supplemented by habitat heterogeneity and contemporary climate. The role of niche conservatism and range overlapping may have been overlooked if only total species richness was analyzed, suggesting the importance of examining different evolutionary groups separately. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study sought to evaluate the relationship between value relevance of financial information and conditional conservatism of non-financial companies listed in China. Design/methodology/approach: Using panel data comprising of 28,723 firm years, the authors determine the value relevance of financial information before and after mandatory International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) adoption while incorporating the relationship with conditional conservatism. The authors further examined how this relationship varies between state and non-state owned companies. Findings: Conditional conservatism is positively (negatively) related to value relevance prior (post) to mandatory IFRS adoption while it makes no difference as to whether a company is state or non-state owned, as IFRS has a positive and significant effect on value relevance. Conservatism, on the other hand, has a negative and insignificant relationship with market value of both state and non-state owned firms during the pre- and post-IFRS period. Originality/value: By exploring an emerging economy, the authors provide evidence on the variations in value relevance amongst state and non-state owned firms. In particular, the authors establish the positive effect of IFRS on the value relevance of non-state firms as compared to state-owned institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]