In traditional cultural customs, the phenomenon of homophony is a psychological association that seeks good luck and avoids disaster; in daily usage, the phenomenon of homophony is an interesting and creative psychological association. The author is based on his curiosity and preference for homophony, plus his knowledge of Chinese idioms. Due to the profound psychological thinking process, I chose to use Chinese Xiehouyu as corpus to analyze the homophony and explore the creation and interpretation process of homophonic Xiehouyu. Xiehouyu is a unique language style that is widely loved by the public. It is playful and humorous. If used skillfully in verbal conversations or article writing, listeners or readers can seek depth in implicitness. The understanding of the words will lead to endless fun and make people laugh, especially the homophonic idioms. Coupled with the transformation of homophonic words, people can’t help but admire the wonderful use of language and the variety of vocabulary. Therefore, in the use of Chinese idioms, the homophone phenomenon is a psychological association full of interest and humor. “Xiehouyu” is a unique language vocabulary that is widely loved by the public. Especially if the “homophony” is used to create Xiehouyu, it can add a lot of fun and humor. Xiehouyu is a linguistic expression created by the general public in different time and space backgrounds. Therefore, there are many dialect languages. This article takes the homophonic Xiehouyu created by the “Guoyu (Mandarin)” phonetic system as the research object. From the creator Three aspects, language itself and receiver, are used to explore the Chinese homophonic idioms more comprehensively. Teaching should focus on practicality and allow students to expand their language skills and use of vocabulary, rather than just teaching materials in textbooks. Therefore, these homophonic phenomena in life should be shared with students and lead children to appreciate the creativity of language. , experience the fun and mystery, and over time, they may also be able to have amazing language creativity.

After a lot of Japanese foreign words came into Taiwan, there was a change in language and language. In fact, these changes are inevitable in the category of foreign language. Because those who use these words define these words, and even enforce the expansion and remembrance of these words. Especially, in the Chinese system which emphasizes the ideograms, when the new foreign words are encountered, there are little or many changes in the words and abbreviations of the words. All of these are normal changes. In this way, these foreign words converge smoothly into the translations and take root. By comparison, Japanese loanwords are changed drastically through changes in internal structures such as changes in formal structure, as well as transfers and derivations. And it makes these changed words. Relatively complete forms of derivation and strong reproductive. With the development of science and the universalization of the mass media such as the Internet, we often enjoy the resources of global society and international society. The most important one is language. Therefore, if we look carefully at these loanwords appropriately and objectively, we can use these words precisely and new words can be imported into the country through translation. Thus, the richness and diversity of domestic words can be increased.

This paper studies the novels of two Indigenous Taiwanese writers; 《绝岛之咒》 wrtieen by Nakao Eki Pacidal, together with 〈失乐园〉 and 〈Matengen〉 written by Si-nan-Matengen. The paper studies these texts from three perspectives, which are the narrative features of myths and folk tales, space and time that appears the text. The two writers broke the standards of what the authors in the Indigenous Movement Generation created for aboriginal literature. Nakao Eki Pacidal broke the stereotype of the indigenous people shown in earlier texts. She also suggested that the indigenous people should not limit themselves as regressive people. Rather, she claims that they should open themselves up towards the globalized world and the diversified environment, and shape their own future through fusion of the aboriginal culture and the present. The sense of time shown in the texts of Si-nan-Matengen has future-oriented characteristics. She presents multidirectional problems that commercialization and protection policies of the aboriginal culture may bring. She suggests that we should have a broader view, going beyond the binary opposition between the indigenous people vs Han ethnics, and tradition vs modernity. By doing so, she suggests that the indigenous people and han ethnics coexist through cooperation.

This note aims to explore the Taiwanese position before and after the Permanent Court of Arbitration Award regarding the South China Sea dispute. The findings suggest that the new Taiwanese Authority, led by Tsai Ing-Wen, has taken a slightly different approach toward the South China Sea, compared to Ma Ying-Jeou’s administration. The new Taiwanese Authority makes no comment on the eleven-dash line claim, which, in turn, implies that its approach is closer to that of the American orientation. It is suggested that the South China Sea Peace Initiative, proposed by Ma Ying- Jeou’s administration, should be followed by Tsai’s administration. In addition, the recognition of the 1992 Consensus by Tsai’s administration will encourage mainland China to consider Taiwan as one of the key players in future South China Sea negotiations.

Fashion bloggers and their personal brands have attracted significant attention in recent years, as prior research has indicated their importance in shaping the fashion industry. As fashion is cultural-specific social construct, to understand how bloggers’ personal brands are developed, it is critical to examine the practices of bloggers from two different cultures, namely, Taiwanese and American. The two cultures are chosen because fashionable persons in the U.S. are well established and can be considered as qualified brands that accumulate a significant amount of followers and fame. However, this institutional process is still under development in Taiwan where routine practices, norms and rules, and the structural features that serve to guide and constrain the behaviours of individuals have yet been established. To focus on the practices within the institution, the framework of practice theory is applied to analyze how individual bloggers negotiate their ways to become branded persons. Focusing on the best practices in the field, 20 most popular fashion blogs from the U.S. and Taiwan were selected in the sample. The verbal and visual texts visible in these blogs are analyzed. The results suggest that moving from amateur bloggers who take interests in fashion to establishing a well-connected fashionable persona in the fashion industry is a long process of celebrities in the making. The contrasts between the two countries indicate that cultural elements are important factors to consider in understanding the formation of persona-fied brands. It appears that the usual assumption of distinction between the public persona and the private persona does not always imply in persona-fied brands. When the external institutions have yet been established, the practices of such a distinction may prove to be challenging. While all the bloggers included in the sample are still unified persons that encompass both the creation and the execution of the personal brands. U.S. bloggers are slowly moving toward professional management of the brands where they see themselves as persona-fied brands and where other persons may execute the brandable qualities on their behalf. On the other hand, Taiwanese bloggers rarely make such a distinction. In fact, most of the bloggers have yet identified the two facets in their personas. They do not see themselves as micro-celebrities that stand in a higher level of the hierarchy than their fans. They regard themselves as part of a fashionable community where others appreciate their taste. This is evident by the practices of how they organize their communities and how they interact with their fan bases.

The purpose of this paper is to understand Taiwanese mature consumers’ attitudes and behaviour toward aging, clothing choice and consumption experience. Eighteen females aged from 47 to 59 years old were recruited, and in-depth interview was used to explore the purchasing motives, the salient impact of product attributes, and fashion information sources. Simple descriptive analysis and content analysis were employed for this study. According to the interview transcripts, Taiwanese mature consumers were generally satisfied with the offers of apparel products in the market. Respondents also expressed that they were concerned about individual interests, self-cultivation and social network when they enter their semi-retirement stage of life. Our results also indicated that clothing selection and consumption were closely associated with individual’s profession, social status and daily activities. In terms of fashion information source, respondents cited window display and store catalogues as the two most important sources, followed by fashion magazines.

Spa tourism is part of wellness tourism, which has been prosperously booming over the past decade. In accordance to the aforesaid, the spa-tourism-oriented marketing strategy is exceedingly significant for businesses akin to hotel, resort and even governments which aim at appealing to more tourists. For the future success, spa tourism needs to appreciate the changing demands of the spa market while providing enough capacity to satisfy them (Henderson, 2004). The worldwide spa industry revenue is growing up from US 60 billion in 2007 to US 73 billion in 2012 (Global Spa & Wellness Summit, 2012). Spa market is one of the fastest growing leisure markets both on the supply and demand sides. Nevertheless, spa industry is utterly fragmented with each segment catering for different customer needs (Harmsworth, 2004). Bali is a popular tourist destination renown for its nature beauty, which attracts both domestic and international tourists. Over the years, it has been dubbed as “the morning of the world”, “the last paradise” and “island with a thousand temples”. According to Indonesian Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS, 2013), it was chosen as the most favorite tourist destination worldwide with a number of tourists totaled at 2,756,579. Among the foreign spa tourism patrons, Mainland Chinese tourists ranked the second while Taiwanese tourists being the fifth in ranking. CNN Travel (2012) reported that the Indonesian government estimated one million Mainland Chinese tourists would patronize the spa tourism in Bali by 2014. Regardless Mainland China and Taiwan are dual sovereignties which identically possess similar culture, there are still some aspects such as gender issue that distinguishes one from another. Furthermore, age, occupation, education, family structure, and life experience are some other aspects that differentiate Taiwanese and Mainland Chinese. In summation, the main objectives of this paper is threefold: (1) to compare the decision making process between Taiwanese and Chinese tourists, specifically, amid the wedded/unwedded couples; (2) to identify the most influential decision maker among the wedded-couple tourists/unwedded-couple tourists in Taiwan and Mainland China; (3) to assist travel agencies which aim at luring couple tourists to concoct the customized package tours. This research develops a quantitative survey for data collection, inference and the resulting data. The first part of questionnaire evaluates the influence regarding wedded / unwedded couples over how much influence each other have (problem recognition, information search, and a final decision) (Davis & Rigaux, 1974). The second part consists of fourteen sub-decisions: the destination (Bali), budget (how much money to spend), days (how much time to spend), accommodation (where to stay), and departure time (when to go) (Belch, Belch, & Ceresino, 1985; Szybillo & Sosanie, 1977); airline, restaurant, local transportation, shopping, travel agency, tour leader, tour guide, optional tour, and spa activities (Wang, Hsieh, & Huan, 2000; Heung & Chu, 2000) and the other kinds of activities (Jenkins, 1979) complete with five-point Likert scale, ranging from “no influence at all” to “all of the influence”. The third part provides some questions asking respondents regarding where they receive the information about Bali. The fourth part asking the respondents provide information such as frequency of visiting destination; how long have the couples been together and how the package tour was booked. Eventually, this questionnaire provides information related to socio-demographic variables, including gender, respondents’ age, occupation, monthly income, and the highest education level (Howard & Madrigal, 1990; Darley & Lim, 1986; Fodness, 1992). The ultimate version of the questionnaire items are refined through the purification process. Above all, this study invites three experts to examine the validity and reliability concerning the questionnaire. 350 valid questionnaires were collected (consists of 171 Taiwanese tourists and 179 Chinese tourists) which was adequate to questions only one spouse in summer period. There is merely one significant discrepancy exists between the wedded and unwedded couples in the decision-making stages, that is, “Information search” conducted under the joint decision making. The nature beauty and wellness services combined with evening entertainment are relatively satisfactory in Bali. During the check-in process, wellness tourists are supposed to be notified of all the spa-oriented services in the spa area. Overall, the satisfaction level of spa in Bali is exceedingly-high. With hindsight, customer service seems to be the greatest asset in Bali. The presented study is an unprecedented research focusing on the behavioral disparity between Taiwanese and Chinese spa tourists when it comes to decision-making stages. The results of this study unfurls the different decision making process between Taiwanese and Chinese couples; according to the research result, the unwedded couples possess more influence than the wedded couples in decision making stages. Moreover, the findings of this research do not entirely support earlier statement given by Tourism Queensland (2013), which mentioned considerable spa customers are female, married, and age approximately 34 to 52 year olds. According to our research, actually, men accounts for a quarter of spa users. The research result indicates the mini-tour is a niche business in the tourism industry that can both benefit Taiwan and Mainland China; mini-tour is a novel concept mentioned in a previous research, which focuses on seniors’ GPT (Wang et al., 2013). This study provides information concerning customer satisfaction level in Bali spa business and travel agency services. The sub-decisions regarding couple tourists are thoroughly researched. Therefore, this presented study can potentially bring benefits to all parties (spa providers, travel agencies, and spa goers); simultaneously, it contributes greatly to the theory of “decision-making”. In conclusion, there are three management implications. First, wedded women, who are the crucial patrons in the spa industry, have more influence in the spa travel decision-making. Therefore, the marketing planners shall regard women as significant decision makers. Nevertheless, unwedded couples are more influential in spa travel when comparing to wedded couples, hence, spa providers shall make spa facilities more enjoyable, romantic, and rivate. Second, sub-decisions are regarded relatively pivotal when it comes to couple tourists. The findings shed some light on several factors of “sub-decision,” which are considered crucial by couple tourists when buying spa package tour. Third, Indonesian government deems Taiwan and Mainland China markets as tremendously paramount, especially when it comes to spa travel to Bali (CNN, 2012). As far as travel agencies are concerned, they need to create more appealing mini-package tours based on customer demographic. For spa providers, in order to efficiently maximize their revenue, they shall improve spa quality and the affiliated facilities and services.

With the popularization of the issues of global warming and climate change, more and more people are aware of environmental damages caused by human behavior. The fundamental living necessities of humans, such as food, water, clothing, housing and transportation, all take place on the Earth. Many environmentalists and governments worldwide have started to promote low carbon and green concepts. Such a green urgency is sweeping the world. Based on the surveys conducted by the Organic Trade Association (OTA) in 2013, over 40% of those surveyed in US households have a higher level of motivation to purchase organic products, for the sake of their own and their family's health. In addition, 97% of organic product buyers had purchased organic fruits or vegetables in the past six months. We can also see this kind of situation in Taiwan, where about 80% of consumers are willing to pay more money to purchase environmentally friendly products. The OTA even maintains that, except for Japan, Taiwan is the fastest growing organic market in Asia. Therefore, this study aims to explore the consumers' purchase behaviour behind the organic market in Taiwan. The organic market in Taiwan covers the products from agriculture, food processing, textiles, apparels, and even personal care products and cleaning supplies. Following this green trend that seeks to enhance human health and to maintain a sustainable earth to live on, organic stores in Taiwan have become an emerging industry and there seem to be endless business opportunities in this potential organic market. In order to acquire a significant market share, it is necessary for enterprise managers to understand consumers' perceived value of organic products and how this determinant, perceived value, impact their purchase intention. Perceived value is the overall purchase experience of consumers. It is based on the consumers' comparison between the quality and quantity of products received and paid out, and their objective and subjective consideration of certain factors (Schechter, 1984; Zeithaml, 1988). Perceived value varies with the type of products and services and consumers' personal traits (Zeithaml, 1988). Perceived value is a complicated construct and, therefore, its impact on consumers' purchase intentions toward products cannot be judged from a single dimension only (Bolton & Drew, 1991). Literature on perceived value divides it into utilitarian and hedonic values. Utilitarian value refers to the perceived value acquired by consumers after their purchasing goals have been achieved in the process of consumption. That is to say, utilitarian value is the task- and rationalization-oriented decisions of consumers. On the other hand, hedonic value is affiliated to the individual emotional and irrationality phase of consumers, which usually occur during the process of consumption. Consumers commonly feel pleasant emotions and feelings of motivation and accomplishment, or can even fulfill their desire for escape (Babin & Attaway, 2000; Babin, Darden, & Griffin, 1994; Bae, 2008). Past studies have pointed out that perceived value has a direct impact on the purchase intention (Grewal, Monroe, & Krishnan, 1998). However, in the Value-Attitude-Behavior Model, Homer and Kahle (1988) indicated that perceived value affects consumers' purchase intention through the mediating effect sourced from their attitude. The Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) has been commonly used to explain a variety of human behaviour (Cunningham and Kwon,2003; Andrews, Silk and Eneli,2010; Kim & Chung, 2011). The TPB mainly focuses on the influence of three behavioural intention dimensions of individuals: attitude, subjective norm and perceived behavioural control. In short, following the fundamental concept of TPB (Ajzen, 1985), this study explored the variables of (1) consumers' attitude towards organic products, (2) the subjective norm, represented by the pressure from family members and close friends, and (3) the perceived behavioural control, presenting perceived ability to control the availability and accessibility of organic products. The ultimate goal of this research is to find out the critical determinants influencing consumers' purchase intentions towards organic products. In order to explore the consumers' possible decisive path from perceived values to purchase intention toward organic products (see figure 1), this study includes the variables utilitarian value and hedonic value as the antecedents, attitude as the mediating factor, and both subjective norm and perceived behavioural control as other influential factors. Figure 1: Conceptual framework and hypotheses This study mainly targeted the consumer behavior toward organic products in the Taipei area of Taiwan. Totally 565 samples were collected. Excluding invalid questionnaires (73 samples), the number of valid questionnaires was 492. The valid response rate was 87%. The SEM is a statistical technique combining both factor analysis and path analysis and is widely used in social and behavioural science studies. Therefore, this study adopted the SEM as the analytical tool to explore the causal relationship among the latent variables discussed above. In sum, this study revealed that the proposed model could well predict consumers’ purchase intentions toward organic products. The empirical research results of this study are summarized as follows. First, the findings of this study confirmed the claims proposed by many scholars that perceived value is a critical determinant affecting the purchase intention of consumers (Zeithaml, 1988). The empirical results of this study show perceived value is an important antecedent driving consumers to purchase organic products in Taiwan. Nevertheless, perceived value is a multi-dimensional construct. As Ryu et al. (2010) suggested in order to explain all consumptive phenomena, we should consider consumers' overall evaluation of utilitarian and hedonic values that are taken into account during their consumption experience. This study found that utilitarian and hedonic values are, indeed, the important driving antecedents for consumers to purchase organic products. Moreover, utilitarian value, compared to hedonic value, has a higher level of impact on the consumers’ purchase intention toward organic products. With regard to the sale of organic products, in addition to the emphasis on the interesting and exciting experience acquired from the purchase or use of organic products, what is more important is that managers can directly emphasize the quality, practical value of organic products, and the contribution that organic products make to people’s health and environmental protection. This not only directly drives consumers to purchase organic products but also further promotes the degree of satisfaction of consumers towards organic products, subsequently increasing the chances for organic products to be purchased. In particular, this study also finds that the main reason for people who never purchase organic products is that they do not yet have a preference toward organic products. For enterprises which want to extend the organic market in Taiwan, this study suggests that managers make consumer to be fond of organic products by driving hedonic and utilitarian value that can be provided by the organic products. Second, the influence of perceived behavioral control and attitude on purchase intention, as mentioned in the TPB in previous studies, was also supported in this study. In other words, when consumers purchase organic products, they have been deeply affected by factors regarding the degree of their knowledge of organic products or the accessibility of the organic products. In that case, the channel strategy and the store coverage of organic products should be very critical in the ever-booming organic products market in Taiwan. Besides, this investigation finds that a certain proportion of consumers do not purchase organic products because they do not understand the organic products, which is also a very important clue for the companies that intend to penetrate the market. They could spread environmental protection knowledge via the advertisements to educate consumers about the benefits (such as protecting the environment, and being good to health, etc.) of the usage of organic products. In that way, the potential consumers could be encouraged to purchase organic products and this will be beneficial for the development of total organic product market.

This paper presents a case of the implementation of international distance courses between two universities of Taiwan and Japan in Asia-Pacific area. It reports the design of activities engaged in learning with supports of various communication tools. It also examines the students’ interaction and context of learning in distance education. The paper begins by briefly introducing the initiatives, the curriculum and the instructional design on implementation of the case. It then presents results of the study with discussion, along with assessment data available on its success. Meanwhile, it also explores cultural interaction among students and class dynamics observed throughout this study. Finally, this paper closes by making recommendations for further research possibilities and practical applications aiming at enhancing international distance education.

대만 원주민족의 기원설, 분류, 정명운동에 대해서 살펴보았다. 한국의 많은 사람들은 고산9족이라는 용어로 인해서 대만에는 9개의 민족이 있다는 편견과 선입견을 갖고 있었다. 원주민족이라는 명칭을 사용하기 이전에 많은 학자들은 대만의 원주민을 고산족과 평포족으로 구분하여 사용하였다. 이 때 고산족은 고산지역에 사는 원주민으로 한족화(漢族化)되지 않은 사람들이고, 평포족은 평지에 사는 원주민으로 청대 중국대륙에서 건너온 사람들과 섞여 살면서 점점 한화된 사람이다. 그리고 평포족의 정체성은 이미 한족에게 동화되어 소멸한 것으로 학자들은 해석해 왔다. 그러한 이유로 많은 사람들은 고산9족이라며, 대만에는 9개의 고산족이 있는 것으로 알고 있었다. 그런데 고산족은 대만 고산지역에 사는 사람들을 통칭하는 것이었고, 고산족이외에 평지에 사는 평포족도 분명하게 존재하고 있었다. 고산족이라는 명칭은 1953년 중국에서 실시되었던 민족식별작업에서 정해졌고, 이에 영향을 받은 대만은 고산족이라는 명칭을 사용하다가 1994년에 원주민, 1997년에 원주민족으로 바꾸어 사용하고 있다. 고산족 명칭 이전에는 문헌에 등장하는 여러 명칭을 고산족과 결부짓고 있으나, 대만 총독부 이번(理蕃) 당국에서 ‘번인(蕃人)’을 고사족(高砂族)이라 부른 게 고산족의 명칭과 가장 관련이 있다고 여겨진다. 대만 원주민족에 관한 분류는 일제시기에 일본 학자들에 의해 이루어졌고, 이 시기에 연구된 민족분류는 대만이 광복한 이후에 원주민족을 연구할 때 많은 영향을 주었다. 학자들 중 일부는 대만 원주민족이 아주 오래전에 중국대륙에서 건너온 백월민족과 관련이 있는 것으로 보았다 또 어떤 학자는 남도민족의 일부로 간주하거나 대만에서 살던 토착민으로 간주하기도 하였다. 그러나 많은 학자들은 고대 문헌에 등장하는 용어들 중 ‘이주(夷州)’와 ‘도이(島夷)’ 등이 대만을 지칭한 것으로 여기면서, 대만이 오래전부터 중국에 포함되었다고 간주하였지만, 이는 한족 중심의 역사관에서 비롯되었고, 대만의 토착민이 보는 시각과는 많은 차이가 있다.

이 글에서는 대만인 학습자를 대상으로 운율단위에서의 음운 현상의 발음교육을 논의하였다. 단어 경계를 넘어서 하나의 운율단위 를 형성할 때 나타나는 경음화, 비음화, 격음화, 유음화에 대한 실현율 과 오류 형태를 분석하고 이를 표준중국어를 사용하는 학습자와 대조 하였다. 경음화의 실현율이 높은 반면에 비음화와 격음화는 낮고 유 음화는 매우 낮았다. 대만인 학습자는 운율단위를 이루지 못하고 단 어대로 발음하는 오류가 높았고 음절의 종성 자음을 발음하려는 경향 이 강했다. 이는 종성에 장애음이 있는 학습자의 모어의 영향인 것으 로 보인다. 분석 자료를 바탕으로 대만인 학습자의 운율단위의 음운 현상과 관련해서, 운율단위의 음운현상에 대한 발음교육, 학습자 모어 를 고려한 발음교육, 운율단위를 구성하는 언어 자료를 고려한 발음 교육 등을 제안하였다.