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Previous research has documented a positive effect of nonconformity on the inference of higher status in Western cultures. In Western culture, nonconformity is associated with high status, which is attributed to competence and autonomy. The present research extends research on nonconformity and status perception to the East Asian context by investigating how cultural tightness—the degree to which social norms are strict and deviance from norms is intolerable—at the personal level and national level jointly affects the evaluation of advertisements featuring nonconformity in two East Asian nations: Japan and China. Based on recent studies showing perceived level of tightness being higher in Japan than in China, we posit that consumers' evaluations of nonconformity in advertisements may differ between Japan and China, despite the two countries sometimes being grouped into a homogenous "East Asian" culture. Through four studies, we showed that Chinese consumers with low personal tightness had favorable attitudes toward ads portraying nonconformity and perceived products in these ads as having high status, whereas Chinese consumers with high personal tightness showed favorable attitudes toward ads portraying conformity. In contrast, Japanese consumers showed relatively harsher judgments for nonconforming behavior than Chinese consumers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Language plays an important role in consumers' perceptions and behavior. East Asian languages, such as Chinese, Korean, and Japanese, are unique in that they can be written horizontally and vertically. In this research, we take China as a case example and explore the downstream consequences of writing direction on Chinese consumers' time-related perceptions and brand/product evaluations. Using three studies, we find that a description presenting context from the past is perceived as having a longer past temporal distance when written in a vertical (versus horizontal) orientation. In advertising, writing direction can serve as an effective cue to invoke Chinese consumers' specific time-related perceptions of brands/products. A brand/product is perceived to be more traditional and antique (versus modern and contemporary) when its description is written vertically (versus horizontally). In addition, we demonstrate that an advertisement presented in a vertical (horizontal) direction results in enhanced persuasiveness and more favorable brand/product attitudes when matched with a traditional (modern) brand/product. Our findings enrich theories and implications of language studies in different cultures and elucidate the effects of writing direction in Asian advertising. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In densely populated, highly urbanized regions such as Zhejiang Province (eastern China), species are under enormous environmental pressures resulting from human activities, land use changes, and habitat fragmentation, which affect species composition and species diversity. Although eastern China is one of the most concentrated distribution areas of endemic bryophytes in East Asia, these species are also faced with the threats of habitat inadequacy. In order to get more information on bryophyte habitat and diversity, we investigated species composition, habitat preference, as well as species diversity differences of bryophytes under different habitat conditions in Jiulongshan National Forest Park (JNFP). In particular, the results showed that 108 specimens of bryophyte were collected in total, including 46 species in 32 genera of 21 families. Furthermore, we had found 12 species of bryophytes that had never been recorded before in Zhejiang Province. Remarkably, 40.74% of bryophytes were found to grow on natural rocks, followed by understories and roadside habitats. In addition, the Patrick richness index (R) varied most significantly among different habitats (p < 0.001). In a conservation perspective, natural rocks, roadways and understories should be preserved to protect bryophyte diversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article studies the history of state intervention in East Asia's varieties of capitalism through a case study of the electric power industry. The reasons for state intervention in China and Japan, their similarities and differences, and their relative importance are described and analysed. The origin and evolution of the different national models of state–business relations in the two countries are influenced by domestic factors such as national defence and internal unification, as well as external circumstances such as colonialism, occupation, and war. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Taking a historical and comparative view, we explore the long debated cause of the spectacular economic successes of East Asia using land reforms in China and Japan during the 1940-50s. Examining the approach to land reform embodied by technocrats such as Liu Shaoqi in China and Wada Hiroo in Japan in addition to the implementation mechanisms of the policies they adopted, we show that the land reforms developed characteristics of dynamic factor endowment according to the Engerman-Sokoloff hypothesis. Fairly equal land redistribution led to political power equality and improved agricultural productivity and income equality, which is conducive to long-term economic development and the prevention of the Kuznets effect ex ante. Nevertheless, factors such as initial exogenous shocks, insufficient scale of family farming, persistent government support and consequential interest groups obstruct sustainable development of the agricultural sector as well as the generalization of East Asian experiences. Equality or inequality is essentially a policy choice in addition to being a long-term ex post evaluation of the reforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The dollar dominance in East Asia has depended on its regional support. Japan's supportive policy toward the dollar, however, shifted in the late 1990s as the Japanese government began to address the region's heavy dependence on the dollar, which was regarded as one (but an important one) of the causes of the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis (AFC), by promoting the use of the yen in the region and regional monetary initiatives. Despite emerging signs of those challenges, Japan's domestic resistance and the region's power rivalry between Japan and China still makes the dollar the currency of choice in the medium term future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using Pedersen's concept of cooperative hegemony, this article examines the prospect of China's peaceful emergence in East Asia. It notes that China has the essential characteristics to become a cooperative hegemon, spearheading an asymmetrical federation among its neighbors in the region. It also observes that China presently employs a number of foreign policy strategies that will enable it to effect a peaceful emergence except in one respect--its ability to accommodate the presence and interests of two hegemonic powers in East Asia. In conclusion, the article asserts that the peaceful emergence of China is possible if it can tactfully manage its relations with the United States with respect to Taiwan, and develop an innovative approach in dealing with Japan, the current cooperative hegemon in East Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We determined the complete mitochondrial genome (GenBank accession number: MG256392) of the raccoon dog (Nyctereutes ussurienusis) farmed in Northeast China and compared it with two previously published mitogenomes, one mitogenome of wild raccoon dog captured in Inner Mongolia of China (GenBank accession number: GU256221) and another mitogenome of Korean raccoon dog(GenBank accession number: KF709435). The N. ussurienusis mitogenome is 16,714 bp long and high similarity of 99.2% and 99.1% with Chinese wide raccoon dogs and Korean raccoon dogs. This study will contribute to understanding genetic divergence between raccoon dogs of N. procyonoides in East Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]