Professional Development of Music Teacher in China: Practice and Challenges

Since 2001, national basic education curriculum reforms have been instituting to meet the demands of quality-oriented education in China. Due to this nationwide reform proposed to cultivate students’ moral, intellectual, physical and aesthetic development, music education which is a vital component of aesthetic education has received considerable critical attention from Chinese government. In the last two decades, the argument of significance of teachers’ professional development (PD) in curriculum reform has led a growing trend towards practice aimed to promote PD of music teachers in China. This paper presents an analysis of challenges the music teacher PD practice has met. Based on the discussion, it must be suggested that policymakers, school principals, PD program providers should increase attention to the effectiveness of music teacher PD programs and take available measures. This paper contributes to ongoing discussions about factors to be considered in designing PD programs for music teachers in countries or societies under the influence of Confucian culture. Potential areas of further work include exploring the factors restricting the effectiveness of music teacher PD programs in China and the framework of high-quality PD program for music teachers in the context of Confucian culture.

Consumer Entitlement Behaviour in Confucian Culture: Empirical Findings in the Vietnamese Retail Setting

The study integrated the stimuli–organism-response (SOR) framework and the social exchange theory to explain the mechanism of consumer entitlement (CE) behavior in the retail context of Confucian culture. Qualitative and quantitative approaches were combined in this study in the form of two focus groups and a survey questionnaire (n = 465) administered in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, under the supervision of the Ho Chi Minh City Statistical Office. The results revealed that government regulation, store fairness and preferential treatment belong to stimuli dimensions that trigger CE behavior through organisms, such as trust, commitment and perceived quality. The study’s findings give empirical support to retailers to understand and look for the right strategy for controlling CE behavior in a Confucian-culture context.

Chinese Traditional Cultural and Cross-Cultural Management

Confucian culture is an ancient culture that has been circulating in China for thousands of years. It represents the value of most Chinese people and plays an important role in Chinese history. From state governance to family management, Confucian culture has influenced all aspects of Chinese people, and, of course, has a great influence on the management of Chinese enterprise managers. However, cultural differences and conflicts when managing multinational teams are inevitable. Therefore, in this article, we will discuss Confucian culture and how to integrate it into modern enterprise management to solve the adverse consequences of cultural differences and conflicts, and discuss the drawbacks of Confucianism to modern enterprise management.

A place and time for humor: leader humor in Confucian cultures

Humor has been positively perceived in general. However, research has shown that a leader should adopt humor with care and only after considering the relevant context, such as cultural differences. This study was undertaken to gain insight into how leader humor is perceived in the predominantly Confucian culture of Taiwan, through a series of in-depth interviews with individuals from throughout the hierarchies of various organizations. Overall, our participants expressed conflicting attitudes toward leader humor in the workplace, depending on the place and time of their leader humor experience. Specifically, leader humor was deemed more effective in informal domains and when a good leader–follower relationship exists. The findings echo the implicit theory of leadership and highlight the need to consider the context when exercising leader humor in Confucian cultures. Implications and future study directions are discussed.

Integration of the Confucian Culture on Cross-Cultural Conflict Management: The Role of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Cross-culture conflict management is the major challenge for the Chinese enterprises going global along the Belt and Road Initiative. This study explores the feasibility of integrating the Confucian culture into cross-culture conflict management, and a special role is given to the COVID-19 pandemic. We combine the Confucian culture values and Hofstede’s cultural dimension theory and adopt the questionnaire survey methods on the Chinese multinational enterprises’ employees. The Cronbach’s Alpha method is also deployed to test the reliability and validity of the data. We find the significant integration of the Confucian culture into cross-culture conflict management. Furthermore, 16 sub-values of the Confucian culture are suggested to mitigate the cross-culture conflicts in multinational enterprises effectively. The findings imply that Chinese enterprises should consider new strategies to manage the cross-culture conflicts, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Impact of personal values on customer satisfaction and word of mouth for luxury hotel service consumption in Confucian culture: evidence from Vietnam

Purpose This research aims to investigate the effect of personal values on customer satisfaction and whether positive experiences lead to positive word of mouth (WOM) about the luxury hotel service from the Confucian perspective. Design/methodology/approach This research developed a structural equation model for testing. Research data collected from Confucian participants who have used luxury hotel services in Vietnam, where Confucianism is the dominant cultural paradigm. Findings The results show that there is a positive relationship between Confucian customer personal values and satisfaction, as well as between customer satisfaction and positive WOM; personal values had no effect on positive WOM. Research limitations/implications This research implies that the personal values of Confucian consumers constitute the lens through which they view the world, thus the service personal values reflect their priorities on luxury hotel service consumption. A key to success for luxury hotel service providers lies in providing services that enhance Confucian customer personal values, which allow service providers to intercommunicate with the Confucian consumers’ core. Originality/value This research is significant because there is little research on personal values from the cultural mechanism of Confucian culture. This research also comes up with a richer understanding of the relationship between customer personal values and behaviors within the luxury hotel segment.

Still a long journey to decentralize geopolitics

In this brief response paper, we respond to the insightful commentaries that critically engage with our original article in this forum. First, we discuss whether Confucian culture is fundamental to Chinese geopolitics, emphasizing how and why culture is part of a wider epistemic resource. We also note that our model is not normative, but an analytic framework for understanding complex non-western situations. Second, we discuss the geographies and scales of our model, noting a core tension between geopolitics at the state level and in everyday life. Third, we address the ‘gap’ between theory and practice under our Confucian model, noting that there is often a strategic inclusion (or exclusion) of Confucianism in practice. We finish by emphasizing that our paper is part a longer journey to further decentralize the western hold upon geopolitics.

NHÂN VẬT THUÝ KIỀU TRONG TRUYỆN KIỀU TỪ GÓC NHÌN VĂN HÓA NHO GIÁO

Ethical Confucianism in general imparts into Vietnamese cultural life not only moral standards, the embodiment of Confucian morality, but also the embodiment of the people’s morality to dream as it exists in reality and is protected by the Vietnamese people. This article analyzes the following aspects of Thuy Kieu's character: loyalty, honor, chastity, and gratitude from the perspective of interdisciplinary literature and culture, particularly Confucian culture. Nguyen Du's loyalty, honor, chastity, and gratitude in Thuy Kieu, of course, partly comes from the Confucianism tradition, but most importantly, from rich love and humanity; it is what Vietnamese people live for. This article affirms that loyalty, honor, chastity, and gratitude in Thuy Kieu, although called Confucianism, are in fact the qualities of the Vietnamese people. Thuy Kieu's personality shows that Confucian morality has been re-conceptualized by the nation's traditions, by the reality of contemporary society, and also by the living environment of Nguyen Du, himself. And more importantly, that "morality" is inspired again, imbued with a loving soul, a great personality, and a noble philanthropic spirit. This article shows that “The Tale of Kieu” is not simply a copy of an earlier work.