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This paper aims to explore the development and evolution of multilingual languages in Macau over the past 400 years, as well as the relationship and interaction of these languages with Macau society. The complex relationship between translation and society in multilingual societies is also discussed. By doing so, this study attempts to fill the current research gap by investigating the formation and evolution of multilingualism in a multicultural context from a historical perspective. To understand the evolving changes in Macau's languages and the relationship with society at large, this paper provides a review of the evolution of the multilingual society in Macau from a historical perspective while analyzing the features of Macau's multiple languages in different historical periods and revealing the influence of multilingualism on Macau's development. This review argues that there are three stages in the formation of a multilingual society and culture in Macau: Chinese as the predominant language in Macau (ancient times-1553), the early introduction of foreign languages and the official status of Portuguese languages in Macau (1553-1987), and Chinese, Portuguese, and English as the three mainstream languages in Macau (1987-present). Through a review of the past for insights into the formation of the multilingual society in Macau, the paper sheds light on the long history of Macau's Chinese and Portuguese cultures and their main linguistic influence on Macau's society and culture. Findings reveal that Macau could utilize its Portuguese characteristics and play an influential role in world communications, bridging the gap between China and Portuguese-speaking countries.

This study employs panel data from 30 provinces and cities in China from 2004 to 2019 to empirically estimate the relationship between producer services agglomeration (PSA) and manufacturing carbon emissions. The findings suggest that such agglomeration is beneficial for lowering carbon emissions in manufacturing, and this conclusion passes multiple robustness tests. Heterogeneity analysis results show that PSA in the east and west regions significantly lowers manufacturing carbon emissions, while its impact in the central region is not significant. High-end PSA is beneficial for cutting carbon emissions in manufacturing, but the inhibitory effect of middle- and low-end PSA is not significant. PSA significantly suppresses carbon emissions from capital- and technology-intensive manufacturing, while it has little impact on carbon emissions from labor-intensive manufacturing. Further analysis reveals that PSA has a dual-threshold impact based on absorptive capacity and a single-threshold effect based on infrastructure level on manufacturing carbon emissions. As the absorption capacity crosses the second threshold or the infrastructure level crosses the first threshold, the inhibition effect of PSA on manufacturing carbon emissions begins to become prominent and shows a trend of enhancement. Our research findings provide theoretical and empirical bases for lowering carbon emissions in the manufacturing sector and fostering its ascent to the highest position of the value chain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Employment significantly impacts the national economy and people's livelihoods and affects millions of households. How to effectively and sustainably improve the quality of employment for the population has thus become a key issue facing China at present. In recent years, under the strategic background of "Digital China" and "Employment Priority", the digital economy has brought about profound changes in the efficiency, dynamics, and distribution of social production. It affects the quality of employment by creating jobs, reshaping employment patterns, and improving labor quality, but its impact and transmission path are still unclear. This research employs a multi-dimensional evaluation approach to score the digital economy and employment quality at the provincial level in China, utilizing data from the country's provincial panels between 2012 and 2022, and examines the feasibility and effect pathways of the digital economy in promoting sustainable improvement in the quality of residential employment. The empirical results provide ample evidence of the significant role played by the digital economy in the sustainable improvement of the employment quality of the inhabitants. Regions with more robust innovation environments tend to benefit more from this impact, and there are discernible regional variations in the impact. The upgrading of industrial structure mediates this process, and the influencing mechanism is regulated by the innovation environment—that is, the innovation environment exerts a facilitating influence on the process of industrial restructuring. The findings herein offer novel insights into the intrinsic mechanism of the digital economy in promoting sustainable improvement in the quality of residential employment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cooperation in the Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Greater Bay Area under the "one country, two systems" framework is different from regional cooperation in other areas. Its unique cross-border cooperation within one country has attracted much attention from the academic community. Since the 1980s, the cooperation between Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao has gone through different stages with China's development. Examining the process of change can contribute to understanding the logic and driving mechanisms of cooperation in the Greater Bay Area. This study shows that regional cooperation has been driven from the market to the combined influence of the market and government since the 1980s. During this transition, the central government has become increasingly involved in the cooperation through political embedding, eventually becoming the main driver of this regional cooperation. However, regardless of whether the driving force was the market or the government, significant internal tensions remained throughout the transition process. The research suggests that the top-level design for institutionalising regional cooperation can effectively balance market and administrative forces, leveraging the strengths of each. It is valuable to elucidate the uniqueness and complexity of Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao cooperation under "one country, two systems", which will contribute to further promoting deep cooperation in the Greater Bay Area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tourism efficiency has become an important role in promoting tourism competitiveness and driving sustainable development. It is particularly important to identify and agnalyze the factors and mechanisms that affect efficiency. This paper firstly evaluates the tourism efficiency of 11 coastal provinces regions in China from 2010 to 2020 by using the DEA-BBC model that includes undesirable outputs. After that, it investigates the internal driving mechanism of the efficiency change through the Malmquist index and its decomposition. Finally, it analyzes the external influencing elements of tourist efficiency by the Tobit model. The results show that: (1) Although the average value of the tourism efficiency was changed from 0.727 to 0.707, it does not achieve the target. Its trend shows fluctuating from 2010–2020, which indicates that the tourism efficiency of most provincial regions is not optimal. The main factor that restricts tourism efficiency is scale efficiency. (2) By analyzing the dynamic trend, it is found that the average increase of technical efficiency is 14.0%, the average increase of technical change is 9.5%, and the average increase of MI index is 25.4%. It indicates that the overall tourism efficiency of 11 coastal provinces region in China is on the rise. (3) The spatial difference of tourism efficiency is significant, but there is no obvious spatial correlation. (4) The influencing factors of tourism efficiency are consumer demand, industrial structure, labor force and urbanization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the post-pandemic era, online education model has become the new standard in the field of higher education, the interactivity and student learning engagement in online classrooms in higher education has become a major concern for scholars. Using thematic analysis in qualitative research, this study conducted in-depth interviews with respondents to understand the status of interactive strategies used by instructors and students' learning engagement during online learning in higher education institutions in Macao, and to explore other factors that influence interactivity and students' online classroom engagement. Through coding and analysis of interview data, this study found that information technology factors in online classroom instruction in the post-pandemic era affect students' online learning motivation, self-control ability, and formative assessment in the online classroom. Also, online formative assessment, students' online learning motivation, and their self-control ability could influence students' online learning engagement. Based on the findings of the study, this paper proposes recommendations for improving classroom interactivity and student learning engagement in online higher education in the post-pandemic era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to reveal the impact of semi-mandatory non-financial disclosure requirements on corporate ESG performance and its mechanism. Utilizing the "comply or explain" semi-mandatory ESG disclosure requirement implemented by the Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEx) of China in 2016 as a quasi-experiment, and adopting the difference-in-differences identification strategy, this paper finds that semi-mandatory non-financial disclosure requirements can significantly enhance corporate ESG performance. Through mechanism analysis, it is found that semi-mandatory non-financial disclosure requirement promotes firms' ESG performance by suppressing the myopic behavior of corporate management and improving the quality of corporate internal control. Through heterogeneity analysis, it is found that semi-mandatory non-financial disclosure requirements have a greater effect on the ESG performance of firms with high institutional investor attention and non-polluting firms, and a smaller effect on firms with executives with overseas experience., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (© 2024 The Author(s).)