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Creativity and imagination in education are increasingly emphasised around the world. However, a lack of these qualities in Chinese societies has been discussed in the academia and popular media, and attributed to various factors, standardised testing chief among them. In Taiwan, a team of scholars working with the Ministry of Education has, since the turn of the century, made special efforts to do research and promote creativity and imagination in education. This paper traces the development of policies and action plans and the implementation of creativity education and imagination in education programmes in Taiwan. Both programmes start from elementary school and go through higher education, and also include lifelong learners and administrators; they are, thus, inclusive of all levels within Taiwan's educational system. This paper cites examples of the action plans and their effects. Finally, implications for educational policy and teaching and learning are drawn from the Taiwan experience.

This commentary looks at the contributions and future research implications of the four articles in this Special Issue of "Thinking Skills and Creativity" to the fields of creativity and creativity education, both in culture-specific and culture-general terms. The articles included in this Special Issue draw attention to issues of development, implementation, and assessment of creativity and creativity education programs in three distinct Chinese societies: China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. They also point to broader academic trends regarding Chinese and Asian creativity.

Emotion regulation has been considered a vital mechanism for psychological and physical health. The Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ) was originally developed by Gross and John to measure the emotion regulation strategies of cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression. Given the practical importance of functional emotion regulation for psychological assessment in the Taiwanese cultural context, this study examined the psychometric properties of the Chinese version of the ERQ in a sample of 909 Taiwanese college students. Results showed that the independent two-factor measurement model was an adequate representation of the structure of the Chinese-ERQ. Reliability and criterion validity of the Chinese-ERQ were also demonstrated. The scalar invariant model across genders was supported and male students reported using suppression to a greater degree than female students. Overall, the Chinese-ERQ is a valuable tool for assessing emotion regulation strategies in research and practice in clinical psychology. Practical implications and future research directions are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]