Asian Social Science, Issue: Vol.22, No.4

Environmental Problems and Physical Space of Safety and Security

Mon, 03 Aug 2026 02:46:26 +0000

Environmental problems driven by the global-scale destruction of nature, including the spread of infectious diseases, have been highlighted and have become a threat to human society itself. This paper discusses safe and secure space as a means of protecting our daily lives from these environmental threats. Consequently, we suggest that although space is vital in human society, realizing a perfectly safe and hygienic space is impossible, and a broader interpretation of space is necessary to achieve true peace of mind. In other words, it is crucial to share a voluntary safety awareness based on science and technology within a broader social space, which can connect individual private spaces to the natural environment.

Making Risk Proximate: Collective Memory and Anticipatory Sense-Making in CNA’s Early COVID-19 Journalism

Mon, 03 Aug 2026 02:46:26 +0000

Journalism studies have often treated proximity in crisis reporting as an objective attribute of events or a situational news value. However, moments of intense uncertainty, such as the early days of global health emergencies, reveal that proximity is not simply “there” to be reported but is actively produced through journalistic practices. Taking the early COVID-19 outbreak as a critical case of journalistic sense-making before dominant narratives had stabilized, this study reconceptualizes proximity as a discursive mechanism through which journalism organizes risk, threat and public health relevance. The study further approaches YouTube as an extension of institutional broadcast journalism within a flatformized media environment. Guided by thematic analysis and discourse analysis, the study examines how CNA, a Singapore-based news outlet, constructed proximity in its broadcast content distributed on YouTube. The findings show that CNA constructed proximity primarily through the invocation of collective memory, linking the emerging COVID-19 crisis to prior regional experiences of infectious disease. By theorizing proximity as a journalistic practice rather than a contextual given, the study advances scholarship on crisis reporting, platform-distributed journalism, and the cultural construction of proximity during public health emergencies.

The Metallic-Threaded Tube Skirts with Lotus: Hybrid Design Across Shan State, Chiang Mai, and Yunnan

Mon, 03 Aug 2026 02:46:26 +0000

This article examines metallic-threaded tube skirts with lotus among Tai Khoen communities in Shan State, Chiang Mai, and Yunnan. It identifies a shared tripartite structure alongside regional variation in materials and decoration. Comparative analysis shows that key features, including silk textiles and embroidery techniques, derive from Chinese traditions. The study further demonstrates how these elements were adapted within local dress systems. Situating the skirts within networks of trade and migration, it argues that they result from sustained transregional interaction. The persistence of these hybrid designs reflects the selective adaptation of external materials and techniques within Tai culture.

The Impact of Workplace Ostracism on Employee Silence

Mon, 03 Aug 2026 02:46:26 +0000

As workplace interpersonal relationships and employee mental health issues have received widespread attention, workplace ostracism has become an important negative interpersonal factor that influences employee behavior. Existing studies have mostly focused on the effects of leadership style, organizational climate, or psychological safety on employee silence, while paying relatively less attention to the internal mechanism through which employees engage in silence because of resource depletion under negative interpersonal conditions. Based on the conservation of resources theory, this study constructs a mediation model of “workplace ostracism—emotional exhaustion—employee silence” and introduces psychological resilience as a moderating variable. An empirical analysis of 229 questionnaire responses from employees shows that workplace ostracism increases employees’ emotional exhaustion, which, in turn, strengthens their tendency toward silence. Psychological resilience can alleviate the effect of workplace ostracism on emotional exhaustion. This study enriches the psychological mechanism explanation of employee silence and provides theoretical support and practical implications for organizations seeking to improve interpersonal climates, reduce employees’ emotional exhaustion, and decrease silent behavior.

Resource Transformation and Collaborative Governance in Creative Rural Tourism: Evidence from Dehang Village, China

Mon, 03 Aug 2026 02:46:26 +0000

Against the backdrop of rural revitalization and deepening culture–tourism integration in China, this study examines the operating mechanisms of creative rural tourism in ethnic minority regions through a qualitative case study of Dehang Village in Western Hunan. Drawing on stakeholder theory and Lefebvre’s theory of the production of space, it finds that cultural resources become tourist attractions through scenographic reconfiguration, forming a composite supply of nature, culture, and experience. The case also reveals a nested collaborative structure centered on the government, enterprises, and local community, although such collaboration does not automatically ensure distributive balance. Moreover, the interlinkage of cultural experience space, everyday living space, and tourism creative space generates a logic of co-construction, sharing, and co-creation that shapes the sustainability of creative rural tourism. This study enriches our understanding of its operating mechanisms and offers implications for community participation, cultural preservation, and sustainable tourism development.

Re-examining Transmission Modes of Dong Pipa Songs and Cultural Sustainability

Mon, 03 Aug 2026 02:46:26 +0000

Dong pipa songs are a traditional musical form of the Dong ethnic group in southern China, with deep cultural significance and historical roots. These songs are primarily accompanied by the Dong people’s self-made pipa, a stringed instrument, and are used to express the Dong people’s ethnic history, legends, and emotions. Rich in local characteristics and artistic value, Dong pipa songs are a vital means of cultural expression. However, in the face of socio-economic changes and modernisation, the transmission of this tradition is increasingly under threat. Based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Huangdu Village, Tongdao Dong Autonomous County, between June 2023 and December 2024, this study examined four modes of transmission: community-based practice, staged performance, institutional education, and digital circulation. Data were collected through participant observation, semi-structured interviews with 25 participants, and audiovisual documentation, and were analysed thematically. The findings showed that community-based transmission most effectively maintained improvisation, emotional attachment, and intergenerational relationships, although it was weakened by migration and changing cultural preferences. Staged, educational, and digital modes increased visibility, accessibility, and institutional support but frequently encouraged standardisation, fragmentation, and the redistribution of authority away from local communities. The study argues that cultural sustainability should not be evaluated solely through visibility or the continued performance of repertoire, but through the maintenance of social relationships, community agency, linguistic practice, and opportunities for creative adaptation. This study contributes to ethnomusicology and intangible cultural heritage studies by proposing a multi-modal transmission perspective that evaluates sustainability through social relationships, community agency, and adaptive creativity rather than repertoire survival alone.

A Cross-Dialect Comparison of Generational Variation in a High-Falling Tone: Evidence from Kunming and Xi'an Dialects

Mon, 03 Aug 2026 02:46:26 +0000

Although intergenerational differences are widely used to investigate language variation and change in apparent time, systematic cross-dialect evidence for comparable tonal categories remains limited. This study examines the high-falling T3 in the urban dialects of Kunming and Xi'an, two Mandarin dialects from different regional backgrounds. The dataset consists of 60 native speakers, divided into older, middle-aged, and younger groups, with balanced gender representation within each group. Fundamental frequency (F0) was extracted using Mini-Speech-Lab and analysed through nine time-normalised sampling points, duration, slope measures, and first-order differences. Within-dialect generational differences were examined using Kruskal–Wallis tests, while cross-dialect differences within corresponding age groups were examined using Mann–Whitney tests, with Holm correction applied for multiple comparisons. The results show that, although T3 in both dialects belongs broadly to the high-falling category, their acoustic implementation and generational patterning are not identical. Kunming shows more robust within-dialect generational differentiation than Xi'an, with significant differences concentrated in the early-to-middle contour and selected dynamic measures, whereas cross-dialect differences are widest in the older group and become more selectively concentrated in the middle and later portions of the contour among the middle-aged and younger groups. These findings suggest that comparable tonal categories do not necessarily exhibit parallel generational patterning across dialects. The study contributes to Chinese sociophonetics by showing that cross-dialect similarity should be evaluated not only through tonal labels, but also through the temporal distribution and structural organisation of acoustic differences.

Linguistic Practices in Digital Play: A Sociolinguistic Analysis of Saudi Arabian Roblox and Fortnite Communities

Mon, 03 Aug 2026 02:46:26 +0000

This study discusses how Saudi Arabian teenagers in Roblox and Fortnite perceive and understand their own linguistic practices within online gaming platforms, which act as sites for pragmatic identity negotiations made through code-switching, lexical creativity, and platform-based constraints. Based on written reflections, forum-style essays, as well as self-reported in-game profiles of 10 Saudi young people (aged 9-16), the study explores how participants conceptualize bilingual Arabic-English practices, such as Arabizi (i.e. 9albi instead of قلبي), and neologisms (i.e. شيلني instead of carry me), as strategies navigating global gaming conventions whilst maintaining cultural identity. Such practices are a manifestation of practical functions such as rapport building and opposition to filters that monolanguage (English) dominate the digital platform, which are all part of digital multilingualism and glocalization. The study analyzes participants’ reflective narratives and self-reported understanding of their language use rather than making claims about their spontaneous, live in-game speech. This work builds upon the research exploring multilingual digital interactions by evaluating how Saudi youth think, understand, and describe their code-switching as a negotiation of global-local identities to guide the platform design of multilingual equity. It fills the gaps in the non-Western gaming research, providing a platform of culturally sensitive learning interventions in accordance with the Saudi Arabian vision 2030.

Imposing Peace by Force in International Politics: A Critical Perspective on the Trump Administration’s Approach to the DRC–Rwanda Conflict

Mon, 03 Aug 2026 02:46:26 +0000

This article critically examines the Trump Administration’s strategy of “imposing peace by force” in the long-standing DRC–Rwanda conflict and analyzes it as a hybrid model combining coercive diplomacy and geo-economic statecraft. It addresses a central analytical question: why do the United States invest significant diplomatic capital in an old and complex regional conflict, and why do they explicitly link conflict pacification to mechanisms aimed at accessing, securing, and redirecting strategic supply chains of critical minerals (cobalt, copper, coltan)? The article argues that U.S. engagement is best explained not primarily by humanitarian imperatives but by a strategic effort to reduce systemic vulnerabilities in critical mineral supply chains within the broader context of great-power competition, particularly against China’s dominance in refining and midstream processing. Methodologically, the study relies on qualitative document analysis and triangulation of official diplomatic agreements, U.S. policy fact sheets, investment communications, media reporting, and humanitarian datasets. The findings show that U.S. peace diplomacy is structured around five strategic logics: (1) the DRC’s mineral centrality in the global cobalt–copper–coltan system; (2) the securitization of critical mineral supply chains as a U.S. national security priority; (3) systemic rivalry with China and the imperative of de-risking midstream dependency; (4) the institutionalization of preferential access and governance mechanisms through instruments such as the Strategic Asset Reserve (SAR) and Joint Steering Committee (JSC); and (5) the corridor-based redirection of mineral flows through Western-backed logistics infrastructures, notably the Lobito Corridor. The article concludes that “peace” operates simultaneously as a diplomatic objective and a strategic instrument of compellence designed to stabilize investment conditions, reshape governance frameworks, and reconfigure supply chains in Central Africa.

The Impact of Psychological Resilience on Voice Behavior Among Newly Hired Employees in Private Enterprises

Mon, 03 Aug 2026 02:46:26 +0000

This study focuses on the relationship between psychological resilience and voice behavior among newly hired employees in private enterprises. Drawing on the Conservation of Resources Theory, this study investigates the mediating role of psychological safety and the moderating role of perceived organizational support. The study employed a questionnaire survey method, investigating a total of 248 newly hired employees at private enterprises. Data analysis was conducted using SPSS 26.0 and AMOS 28.0, yielding the following conclusion: psychological resilience significantly promotes voice behavior among newly hired employees in private enterprises; psychological safety plays a partial mediating role between the two; and perceived organizational support positively moderates the relationship between psychological resilience and psychological safety. Based on these findings, this study suggests that private enterprises should focus on recognizing and cultivating psychological resilience among new employees, creating a positive atmosphere of psychological safety, and strengthening perceived organizational support to stimulate newcomers' voice behavior and infuse new vitality into enterprise development. This study not only deepens the understanding of the mechanisms influencing voice behavior among new employees but also provides targeted recommendations for human resource management practices in private enterprises, helping companies enhance employee voice behavior.

AI Co-Creation in Family Education: A Push-Pull-Mooring Analysis of Parents’ Adoption of Children’s Companion Products

Mon, 03 Aug 2026 02:46:26 +0000

Based on the Push-Pull-Mooring (PPM) model, this study integrates the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology 2 (UTAUT2) and the value co-creation theory to construct a push-pull-mooring theoretical framework. The purpose is to explore the influencing mechanism of consumers' willingness to purchase AI children's companion products. A questionnaire survey was adopted, targeting parents of kindergarten and primary and secondary school students in first-tier cities such as Beijing and Shanghai. Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling was conducted using Smart PLS 4.0 software to test the direct effects of key factors and the moderating effect of AI co-creation ability. The findings indicate that performance expectancy, hedonic motivation, and social influence, as pull factors, have a significant positive impact on purchase intention; ethical and privacy concerns, as push factors, have a significant negative impact on purchase intention; AI co-creation ability not only directly promotes purchase intention but also significantly positively moderates the relationship between pull factors and purchase intention, and negatively moderates the relationship between push factors and purchase intention. This study verifies the action paths of factors such as AI co-creation ability, broadens the theoretical perspective of traditional technology acceptance models, and provides empirical support for AI children's product enterprises in product design and marketing strategies.

Multilingual Practices of Vietnamese Wives at a Chinese Border Town

Mon, 03 Aug 2026 02:46:26 +0000

Against the backdrop of cross-border regional integration between China and Southeast Asian neighbors, growing numbers of Vietnamese women migrate across the border to marry local Chinese men in pursuit of improved livelihoods, yet pervasive linguistic barriers severely restrict their access to local social resources. Focusing on nine Vietnamese cross-border migrant wives in Malipo, Yunnan Province, this study explores their Mandarin communication difficulties and the adaptive linguistic strategies they adopt to mitigate such obstacles through semi-structured interviews, participant observation and field notes. Analysis reveals that inadequate Mandarin proficiency creates multifaceted integration predicaments spanning family, economic and communal spheres: it hinders parent-child communication and children’s academic tutoring within households, restricts income growth in farming and small-scale commercial work, and impedes accurate symptom expression during medical consultations, slowing their assimilation into local border communities. To resolve these communicative obstacles, the women adopt multi-layered adaptive approaches: they acquire basic oral Mandarin via sustained linguistic support from family members, flexibly engage in language switching by drawing on their multilingual repertoires and local ethnic social networks to boost business communication and upgrade their Mandarin competence, and pursue gradual linguistic adaptation to independently access medical services and integrate into neighborhood life. Despite consistent efforts to advance their Chinese skills, structural social barriers including temporary residency restrictions, insufficient household income, entrenched domestic gendered labor divisions and the complex polyglot border environment prevent their full linguistic and social inclusion. This research fills gaps in sociolinguistic scholarship on multilingual practices of female cross-border migrants along the China-Vietnam frontier, and provides practical references for grassroots governments to formulate inclusive language support policies and advance the social integration of transnational migrant populations.