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Aim: To explore the health beliefs of clinical and academic nurses from Japan, Australia and China regarding wearing paper masks to protect themselves and others, and to identify differences in participants' health beliefs regarding masks. Background: The correct use of face masks and consensus among health professionals across the globe is essential for containing pandemics, and nurses need to act according to policy to protect themselves, educate the public and preserve resources for frontline health workers. Paper masks are worn by health professionals and the general public to avoid the transmission of respiratory infections, such as COVID‐19, but there appear to be differences in health beliefs of nurses within and between countries regarding these. Methods: This qualitative descriptive study used content analysis with a framework approach. Findings: There were major differences in nurse participants' beliefs between and within countries, including how nurses use paper masks and their understanding of their efficacy. In addition, there were cultural differences in the way that nurses use masks in their daily lives and nursing practice contexts. Conclusion: Nurses from different working environments, countries and areas of practice hold a variety of health beliefs about mask wearing at the personal and professional level. Implications for nursing policy and health policy: The COVID‐19 pandemic has sparked much discussion about the critical importance of masks for the safety of health professionals, and there has been considerable discussion and disagreement about health policies regarding mask use by the general public. Improper use of masks may have a role in creating mask shortages or transmitting infections. An evidence‐based global policy on mask use for respiratory illnesses for health professionals, including nurses, and the general public needs to be adopted and supported by a wide‐reaching education campaign. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Health literacy is an important predictor of health outcomes. The Health Literacy Questionnaire has been widely adopted to measure health literacy and has been translated into multiple languages including Chinese. This study aims to evaluate the psychometric properties of the simplified Chinese Health Literacy Questionnaire. Methods: Data were obtained from a sample of 362 Chinese immigrants from Chinese community organizations in New South Wales, Australia. Statistical analyses include descriptive and exploratory factor analyses. Results: A seven‐factor solution was derived from 39 of the original 44 items, all with acceptable to excellent internal consistency but differing from the original construction. The health literacy subscale scores were negatively associated with age and with age at immigration, but positively associated with duration of stay (years) in Australia, better English proficiency and current employment. Differing interpretations of the questions based on Chinese culture could possibly explain the variations between the two versions. Conclusion: The simplified Chinese Health Literacy Questionnaire measures some central concepts of health literacy well. However, the questionnaire may require further development, especially in linguistic and cultural aspects. SUMMARY STATEMENT: What is already known about this topic? The Health Literacy Questionnaire has been translated and validated in multiple languages with good reliability and validity. What this paper adds? The study addresses issues that may be related to cultural adaptation and language interpretation of the simplified Chinese version of the Health Literacy Questionnaire. The implications of this paper: It is important for researchers and clinicians to evaluate the cultural sensitivity of translated questionnaires within the specific context before application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Chinese outbound tourism market has become one of the acknowledged emerging markets in Australia. This paper reviews the development of the Chinese outbound tourism market to Australia, with particular reference to issues emerging from the interaction between Chinese and Australian-based businesses. The paper begins with an overview of Chinese inbound tourism to Australia to provide some context to the discussion. This is followed by an examination of cultural factors, particularly guanri, in business transactions in the Australian-Chinese tourism sector. A theoretical model is introduced to conceptualize the strategies managing the Chinese business relationships. This is an ongoing research project; this paper reports Stage One of the research which has been conducted to explore the crucial factors which influence establishing, developing and maintaining the relationships between Chinese authorized travel agencies and Australian inbound tour operators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Background: The migration of registered nurses as a response to a global nurse shortage has seen a growth in research interest in this area. Much of the research focuses on differences in language and culture which are posed as the attributes of the immigrant nurse. Objectives: In reporting on an analysis of data drawn from China-educated nurses working in the Australian health care system, this paper explores the social construction of difference and the related intersection of difference and racialisation. Design: A symbolic interactionist approach informed 46 in-depth interviews with 28 China-educated nurses. The method of analysis was initial and focused coding and constant comparison of data. The focus of interpretation was on human action and interaction as contextual and thus structural factors were critical to the analysis. Results: Two levels of meaning were depicted in this study: difference as “you are you and I am I” and difference as “incompetence”. Negative meanings were ascribed to difference which in turn legitimised inequality and held the potential to perpetuate racism. Conclusions: We argue that it is problematic to conceptualise difference as individual attributes. Difference needs to be contextualised and thus explored as a complex and socially constructed concept that in its application has social and political implications for immigrant nurses in Australia and elsewhere. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The Personal Wellbeing Index (PWI) is being developed for the cross-cultural measurement of subjective wellbeing (SWB). This paper reports the findings of its utility with the Hong Kong Chinese and Australian populations. An item on affect, ‘satisfaction with own happiness’ was also investigated to determine whether it should be added to the index. Three-hundred and sixty participants (180 per country), with equal representation from groups aged 18–35, 35–64 and 65 years and above, were recruited from each country. The PWI demonstrated good psychometric performance in terms of its reliability, validity and sensitivity, which are comparable in both countries. The item ‘satisfaction with own happiness’ was found to contribute significantly to the scale’s psychometric performance in Australia but not in Hong Kong. Cultural differences in the perception of the concepts ‘satisfaction’ and ‘happiness’ were suggested as an explanation for this finding. The PWI data are also consistent with homeostasis theory, which proposes that each person’s SWB level is maintained within a limited positive range. For the Australian population, their mean SWB level fell within the established Western range of 70–80, on a scale from 0 to 100. The Hong Kong population, however, fell below this range. Cultural response bias was identified as a plausible explanation for the differences between the Hong Kong and Australian samples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper reports on a study of 28 ethnic Chinese businesses in Brisbane, Adelaide, and Perth, carried out in 2000 and 2001. It focuses on their strategies of vertical, horizontal, and unrelated diversification often combining different activities, products, and markets at the same time. It demonstrates how these practices are socially embedded in their preference for using personal networks. Non-related diversification, in particular, promotes and is facilitated by using "weak ties" that serve as bridges, leading into new networks (Granovetter, 1973). This can create links to Chinese of different national and dialect origins and to those of other ethnicities. It is suggested that open networks and diversification mutually interact to support each other and may have evolved in tandem from earlier, more closed and niche bound business cultures and practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]