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The author's observations in this article fall broadly into two sections: Chinese kids truths — a review of the current factors most influential in shaping Chinese kids' view of themselves, the world around them and the brands that speak to them in that world, and Chinese kid trends — some of the key factors that are changing and will continue to change those relationships.

What does it take to build a “Kid Contract” for your brand in China? Just as anywhere, it involves understanding the nature, needs and wants of this specific audience. In the first of this two‐part piece, the author introduces some of the dynamics of Chinese kids today, the key external influences on them, their perception of self and their behaviour. In this second piece, the author will try to outline some of what he's found that can help in shaping an appropriate “Kid Contract” for a brand here, and communicating with this important target group. The author refers to a “Kid Contract” because in effect your brand must negotiate with the kid and/or give the kid leverage so he can negotiate with his parents.

Examines how much attention urban mainland Chinese children pay to television commercials, their response to different types of commercials, and their perceptions of the quality of advertised and non‐advertised brands. Classifies the types of commercials seen as funny, animated, public service, celebrity endorsements, and those that increase knowledge, and relates these types to the four age groups of the children studied. Concludes that children pay a decreasing amount of attention to commercials as they get older, and that the link between liking a commercial and impulse buying of its product also lessens; confidence in advertised brands does not increase with age, but confidence in non‐advertised brands decreases with age.

This paper provides a look at children today using the latest Youth TGI data. The Youth TGI survey covers many aspects of kids' lives, which add insight into effective communications planning. The focus of the paper is the importance of understanding children in order to target them effectively. It looks at how kids are spending their time, their media consumption, their adoption of new technology and their attitudes.

Explores the consumer behavior patterns of urban Chinese children as a primary and an influence market. Examines, as primary consumers, their income, spending and saving patterns. Finds that they have two different types of income, save over half of it, and spend the rest on snack items, play items, and the largest portion on school‐related items. Analyzes their influence on the spending behavior of their parents and grandparents among 25 product categories and the results reveal that they influence around two‐thirds of parents’ purchases. Also considers role of age and gender on children’s consumer behavior. Discusses some marketing implications.

This research aims to investigate whether and how differences may exist in children’s preferences of package design across cultures, with a focus on three aspects of package design: curvilinearity, figurativeness and complexity.

A large-scale questionnaire survey has been conducted in a face-to-face setting in the USA and China, generating valid responses from 763 American children and 837 Chinese children of age 3-12 years.

Unlike previous findings among adults, children from both cultures were found to unanimously prefer curved package design. Nevertheless, Chinese children showed greater preferences for figurative and complex package design than American children; these tendencies increased with age, suggesting significant age–culture interactions.

The surprising finding of the lack of cultural difference in children’s preferences of curved package design suggests that such cultural preferences established in studies of adults may not emerge through time via cultural/social learning until after age 12. The limited cultures, stimuli and factors included in the study call for replications of the study in more realistic and broader settings.

The findings provide package design guidelines for consumer product marketers and designers/innovators targeting the Chinese and American children’s markets. Curved package designs are preferred by children from both cultures. Nevertheless, marketers should choose figurative and complex package design in accordance with the target children’s age and cultural background.

This study contributes to the limited empirical consumer behavior research on package design, especially that of children’s products. It also extends the literature on cultural psychology, experimental aesthetics and developmental psychology.

Research suggests that children in Hong Kong are at an elevated risk of emotional problems. Authoritarian parenting, a common parenting style in Hong Kong, is a critical factor associated with childhood mental health problems. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the effectiveness of the 6As Positive Parenting Program (6As) in modifying parenting attitudes, reduction of parenting stress and increasing self-efficacy in positive parenting, among a sample of 82 Hong Kong parents. 6As focuses on prevention by instilling positive parenting beliefs and principles, thereby reducing reliance on authoritarian and related parenting styles.

The program was evaluated using a controlled pre-post-treatment design. Outcome measures were the Chinese Child-rearing Beliefs Questionnaire, Parental Stress Scale, Parenting Self-efficacy Scale and participant feedback. ANOVA and correlation were utilized to detect treatment effects and relationships between the degree of change among measures and subscales.

Relative to the control group, the 6As Positive Parenting Program significantly changed parents’ parenting attitudes, reduced parenting stress and increased self-efficacy in positive parenting. In sum, 97.6 percent of the participants agreed that the program is a good fit for the Hong Kong culture.

A larger sample would have been desirable for this study. One factor that limited analyzable data was that some of the participating organizations enrolled participants into the program who did not meet research inclusion criteria. Furthermore, the size of groups varied from 5 to 16 participants, which may have produced different group dynamics that added variability to outcomes. Future 6As parenting program research should attempt to standardize group size or to directly compare the effectiveness of smaller vs larger groups. Furthermore, as noted earlier, the research was conducted during the primary school application period, which may have heightened the parenting stress for parents of younger children.

The results suggest that an enhanced belief in authoritative, autonomy and training strategies could reduce parental stress and shift parents’ attitude toward a more positive approach in child-rearing.

There is considerable need for a holistically designed parenting training that is culturally credible and sensitive.

Findings suggest that positive parenting can enhance the parent–child relationship and reduce parental stress. The results support governmental, non-governmental organizational and community focus on positive practices for parenting training in Hong Kong.

The new century has witnessed rapid growth in China's foreign aid. However, there is still yet any consensus about the nature or the consequences of China's foreign aid. In this study, the author reviews the history of China's foreign aid and finds significant changes in China's foreign aid policy in the past seven decades.

The author analyzes China's foreign aid data between 2000 and 2017 from the AidData program with a Tobit model.

This study’s results show both the similarities and differences between China and Western donors. These “Chinese characteristics” in its foreign aid, we argue, illustrate China's dual identity in the new century: both the largest developing country that minds its own economic development and an emerging global power that aspires to elevate its global status and enhance its soft power.

This article is, to the author’s knowledge, one of the first comprehensive empirical analysis of China's foreign aid using the data from AidData program. It will enrich our understanding of the nature and consequences of China's foreign aid in the new century.

This paper aims to analyze the interviews conducted with preservice teachers. The analysis seeks to surface how colorblindness and stereotype threat may influence preservice teachers’ perceived implicit biases.

This is a mixed-methods study that used quantitative data from the implicit association test (IAT) over three-time points to determine the implicit bias levels of preservice teachers. This paper reports on the qualitative findings related to the stereotype threat of interview participants.

The interviews revealed that participation in the study caused a defensive reaction related to stereotype threat. Despite having participated in an intervention that, on average, reduces bias as measured by the IAT participants’ expressed stereotyped beliefs about children of color and minimized the salience of race e.g. saying they did not see color. However, the interviews reveal that the participants believed that the intervention had made them aware of their own implicit biases and that it was within their ability to change these biases. These findings indicate that although considering implicit bias makes teacher candidates uncomfortable, it may also be an effective addition to teacher preparation programs.

This study used the IAT and an intervention to make preservice teachers aware of their own biases. During the interview process, there was significant evidence of stereotype threat among the participants who agreed to participate in the open-ended session.

This paper focuses on the relatively unexplored link between international experience and academic careers. Drawing on a study of 30 British academics in four countries, it reports how they accounted for their decision to take an overseas appointment and how they evaluated that appointment. The contemporary career literature is used as a framework for analysis connecting the findings with “traditional” and “new” career themes. The desire to travel was found to be a key driver in taking the overseas appointment. When it came to evaluating the overseas appointment, however, upward career mobility in the context of increasing internationalisation was a major concern. The paper offers a number of key concerns for managers in institutions of higher education, particularly those concerned with the management and recruitment of international faculty.