Attractions are conceived in this chapter as an indispensable force in the matrix of the tourism system. The text reviews the definitions of attractions and considers some of the major models defining the term and the management of the sites. There is a further focus on queues and crowds and the challenges involved in dealing with language differences in international settings and the common tourist concerns about safety. An appreciation of the ways visitors use their time to create and build memorable attraction visits is highlighted for future research

Chapter 25 documents the changes in the family system in Taiwan. It shows that the values of Taiwanese traditional families were founded on the ‘father_son axis’, characterized by a priority on family interests, an emphasis on hierarchy and birth order, women’s subordinate status, patrilineal descent, the pursuit of family growth, and the maintenance of a big family system. While some of these characteristics have persisted, families in Taiwan have been increasingly based on a ‘husband_wife axis’, due to the expansion of compulsory education and higher education as well as the rise in women’s self-awareness and labor participation rates. Relatedly, late or no marriage, late or no pregnancy, and increased divorce rates have emerged in Taiwanese society, influencing the power and status of marriage and the family institution in Taiwan.

This chapter interrogates a research journey and the trajectory of study on media, sports and society. Beginning with reflection on both stimulants to and motivations for this journey, the author makes a case for the necessity of interdisciplinarity in the socio-cultural study of mediated sport. Focusing on key theories, methods and findings interwoven in his research agenda, the author summarises key considerations in understanding (1) mediasport fan experiences, (2) dirt theory, commodification and mega-events, (3) mediasport fan narratives, and (4) the mediasport interpellation. Moving to consideration of the larger state of play in media, sport and society inquiry, the author considers the development of the field by characterising the evolving agenda through five stages. Tensions and opportunities are revealed in considering the complementary and offset priorities of three distinct scholarly dispositions to studying the communication of sport and sitting debates over studying new media impacts.

China’s overseas investment is driven by the Chinese government’s ‘going global’ policy, formally launched in 2000. The top 100 Chinese companies, measured by Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), are mainly State Owned Enterprises (SOEs) that operate under the control of the State-Owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC), which is a government agency. There are currently 106 SOEs under SASAC, and these are considered national champions. As they continue to globalize, questions arise about how the governance of these SOEs would change in the face of the mounting political and regulatory pressure that is often seen in host countries. This chapter explores how the Chinese SOEs may change their governance practices as a result of internationalization. It investigates Chinese national champions’ reform pattern in the course of globalization. The study provides a better understanding of how globalization can promote SOE reform in China.

China’s cultural and creative industries were, and to some extent remain, predicated on material culture, illustrated by the rollout of hundreds of cultural parks and creative clusters. The emphasis within the 13th Five-year Plan is for a digitally connected China. Associated with this is the concept of collaborative innovation. In this chapter the authors question if collaborative innovation will deliver the scale of benefits that the industrial economy has achieved. Certainly, the emphasis on collaboration, efficiency and knowledge is a different blueprint than the industrial clusters of the previous decade, most of which ended up as real estate projects. The chapter looks at so-called incubators, makerspaces and innovation hubs in Hangzhou and Shenzhen. Noting the presence there of commercial digital companies such as Alibaba and Tencent, the authors look at the potential of these spaces to generate digital disruption, and ultimately innovation.

This chapter, taking China as a case and following a four ‘C’s (context, concept, construction and conclusion) structure, depicts how the world’s largest higher education system is developing its quality governance mechanism. The mechanism includes a national overarching external evaluation structure and individual higher education institutions’ internal quality insurance practices, in response to the government’s ongoing reform scheme, changing needs of the market, and the massification process of higher education. The concepts of quality control (management) and quality governance are identified in the context of China’s culture tradition and social transition, which deeply influence the essence of higher education. Students’ participation and their learning experiences shown by large-scale surveys are presented as an example to describe the constructive practice that brings a shift from the traditional mode of quality management in which evaluation is more summative and single minded, to a new model of quality governance with assessments involving different stakeholders and aiming at process improvement. The chapter concludes that the quality governance of higher education in China is becoming a system of collaborative practices rather than the sole jurisdiction of the government.