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The goal of the special issue is to review current cigarette smoking trends in China; this article aims to provide an overview of the main themes of the special issue.

The instruments for data collection of the five studies in this special issue are surveys. One study used a random sampling method, one used an intercept survey method, and three used a convenience sampling method.

Highlights of the findings include: among the 677 physicians surveyed, 31.6 percent of the men and 0.9 percent of the women were current smokers; 79.2 percent of the cigarette users reported smoking on duty; 15 percent of the cigarette users smoked in front of patients. Sixty‐one percent of the physicians often advised patients to quit smoking. Two factors significantly influenced a physician's anti‐smoking frequencies: whether they were smokers themselves and whether they had received training on helping patients to quit smoking. About half of the 269 patients surveyed reported seeing someone smoking inside the hospital, and 22.3 percent had seen physicians and/or nurses smoking. Among the 758 medical students surveyed, 26.5 percent of males and 1.6 percent of females had smoked in the previous 30 days.

The exclusive coverage of a western journal on cigarette smoking in China can draw the attention of Chinese and western scholars in the field, as well as the attention of the Chinese Ministry of Health, to this major national problem. This attention should help to advance anti‐smoking educational campaigns in China.

This is the first special issue by a western academic journal on cigarette smoking in China, where rates are far higher than in most other parts of the world, and are a major health concern. Two studies have large sample sizes and all five studies have high response rates.

The main purpose of this study is to determine the cigarette smoking rate and smoking cessation counseling frequency in a sample of Chinese nurses.

At the time of data collection, the hospital had 260 nurses, 255 females and five males. The 200 nurses working on the two daytime shifts were given the questionnaires; none refused to participate, reaching a response rate of 100 percent. All the participants were females as the five male nurses were working in the operation rooms at the time of data collection, are were thus not accessible.

Some key findings include: only two nurses, out of 200, identified themselves as current cigarette smokers; all provided anti‐smoking counseling to patients, the majority of them did not think their efforts were successful; cigarette smoking is a problem in China: the nurses estimated that 80 percent of male and 10 percent of female patients were current smokers; in the opinions of the nurses, Chinese smokers used smoking as a stress reliever and a social lubricant; two methods may help smokers to quit or reduce smoking: using aids such as patches, acupuncture and nicotine gum, and counseling by health professionals; the nurses think that cigarette smoking is well accepted in the Chinese culture.

Findings of this research suggest that the Chinese Ministry of Health should take measures to change the cultural norms and values regarding cigarette smoking including strict rules be imposed on not passing/sharing cigarettes in the workplace.

In a collectivistic culture such as China where opinions of authorities are respected, the part of nurses, who represent health authority to their patients, in assisting patients to quit or reduce smoking cannot be overemphasized. This study adds to the scarce research on Chinese nurses' role in helping patients' smoking cessation efforts.

The paper seeks to report data on cigarette smoking, anti‐smoking practices, physicians' receipt of anti‐smoking training, and the association between receipt of the training and anti‐smoking practice among physicians in Wuhan, China.

Participants were selected through the stratified random sampling method. The questionnaires were completed by the sampled physicians and the response rate of the survey was 98.1 percent.

Among the total sample, 11 percent were current smokers. Significantly more male physicians than female physicians were current smokers (31.6 vs 0.9 percent, p<0.001). In total, 41 percent of physicians always or often asked patients about smoking habits, and 61 percent of them often advised patients to quit. Receiving anti‐tobacco training significantly increased the likelihood for physicians to ask patients about smoking (odd ratio=2.55, p<0.001) and to advise patients against smoking (odd ratio=4.05, p<0.001) with and without controlling gender, age, education, type of hospital and medical services specialty.

More effort should be devoted to training for physicians with focus on anti‐smoking practice and smoking cessation counseling in addition to assist physicians themselves to quit smoking.

The findings of this study update the data regarding cigarette smoking among physicians in Wuhan, China, and their practice of anti‐tobacco counseling. It indicates that it is very important to provide the training regarding anti‐smoking counseling among physicians.

This paper aims to investigate the average daily consumption of cigarettes and its correlates, attitudes toward smoking, and suggestions for anti‐smoking measures in a sample of Chinese college student smokers.

A sample of 150 college student cigarette smokers in Baoding, a city near Beijing, filled out a questionnaire asking about their average daily consumption of cigarettes, attitude toward smoking and their opinions on how they might control their smoking behavior.

In total, 85.3 percent of the smoking students were males and 14.7 percent females, and males had started smoking earlier. However, and surprisingly, the average daily consumption among females was greater than among males (9.6 vs 5.6 cigarettes a day, p<0.01). Average daily cigarette consumption was significantly associated with perceived health condition (students who thought themselves in poorer health consumed more), perceived risk of cigarette smoking (but with those who thought it harmful actually consuming more than those who did not), frequency of offering cigarettes as gifts, and perceived enjoyment from smoking. The three most commonly reported measures which curbed smoking were friends' or classmates' suggestions, the urging of a boyfriend/girlfriend, and the urging of parents.

Findings in this paper underscore the importance of developing effective smoking cessation programs through gender‐specific approaches at post‐secondary educational institutions as well as coordinating anti‐smoking efforts at multiple levels of educational administration in China.

This paper adds to the few studies on Chinese college students' cigarette smoking practices and student smokers' attitudes toward cigarette smoking. It also reports for the first time possible effective anti‐smoking measures as suggested by the students themselves. The value of this study lies in the finding that cigarette smoking among highly educated individuals in China is on the rise and vigorous research on the smoking behavior of this group should be a high priority.

This study aims to examine whether, in the opinion of patients selected in 13 hospitals of Hubei province, China, hospitals are smoke free. Patients were also asked whether their physicians had inquired about their smoking status.

Patients were recruited through an intercept method (i.e. stopped by the interviewer while in the hospital); data were collected through interviews, with a response rate of 96.1 percent.

Among the intercepted patients, 48.3 percent reported having seen people smoking in hospitals; 22.3 percent had seen a doctor and/or nurse smoking; 23.8 percent had smelled tobacco in hospitals; 68.4 percent reported having seen “no‐smoking” signs in hospital settings; 42.6 percent reported having been asked about smoking status in their latest visit to a doctor and 23.8 percent reported receiving tobacco cessation counseling. Compared to hospitals in large cities, patients from medium/small city hospitals reported significantly higher levels of cigarette smoking among physicians, and poorer implementation of regulations for a smoking‐free hospital, and less smoking cessation counseling by physicians.

Findings of this study point to the need for greater efforts to be made in promoting a smoke free environment in hospitals, as well as encouraging physicians to provide more smoking cessation counseling to smoking patients, particularly physicians in small and medium hospitals.

The reduction of tobacco use among medical students is a potentially powerful strategy to reduce tobacco use among future health professionals, who in turn, can have significant impact on tobacco use among patients as well as the general population in China. The goal of this study is to update information on the prevalence of cigarette smoking among Chinese medical students and to assess modifiable factors for smoking reduction.

Presented in the paper are descriptive, associative and path model analyses of survey data collected among 758 medical students in year one through year three from Hainan Medical College, Hainan, China.

Among the total 758 participants, 66.9 percent of males and 26 percent of females smoked and 26.5 percent of males and 1.6 percent of females had smoked in the past 30 days. The median monthly expenditure on cigarettes was 30 Chinese Yuan (approximately US$4.25). The likelihood of smoking increased with male gender, more advanced year group, poor academic performance, perceived peer smoking, and depressive symptoms, after controlling for covariates.

Findings reported in this study provide further insight into the smoking prevalence among medical students in China as well as adding to knowledge about several potentially modifiable factors that are related to smoking. Data collected in this study are likely to prove valuable in prioritizing tobacco control among Chinese medical students, as they are future medical doctors, and their smoking behaviors will have strong influence on their patients as well as the general public.

Although an important facet of modernist architecture in which function plays a prominent role, building flexibility is not entirely a new concept. Its relevance transcends generations, allowing space and structure to evolve through time. This paper investigates the relationship among main building structures, infill elements, and space by studying examples in ancient Chinese architecture. It reveals the role of building owners, users, and craftsmen from a survey of historical documentation. In studying these examples, it is concluded that craftsmen in ancient China were involved not only during the construction phase but throughout the period of use as well. Thus, in select cases, the relationship between craftsmen and owners or users had been preserved for generations. Finally, this paper suggests potential strategies for the building industry and technology in the move towards sustainable development.

Investigates the various major sociolinguistic subcultures of China with specific attention to their distinctive food preferences, coupled with a tradition of food symbols which interweave Chinese subcultures. Points out that, contrary to popular belief among foreign business people, there is no “China market”; rather, there are many diverse markets within China. Notes that there are many languages and, hence, cultures in the country, and the people do not all eat the same foods; yet, at the same time, there is a rich unity of symbolic tradition associated with the foods the Chinese eat ‐ indeed there is an elaborate food linguistic the semantics of which need to be understood by outsiders. Presents an introduction and overview of the diversity and unity of China as it relates to food, and its findings should be of value to those working in various aspects of the food and agriculture industries who may have an interest in China markets, those interested in either importing or exporting Chinese food products, exporting food processing equipment or farming and agricultural technology, and those in the food business serving Chinese populations of significant size around the world.

Guided by Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological System’s model, this study documented acculturation and parental involvement in low-income Chinese immigrant homes that serve as predictors of parental mediation. By surveying 165 parents of 3–13-year-old immigrant children, this study found that low-income Chinese parents enacted restrictive mediation the most and exhibited a slow acculturation process even after an average of seven years of emigration. Higher parental acculturation was related to a higher use of active and restrictive mediation. Additionally, different aspects of parental involvement also served as predictors of the three mediation strategies. Chinese cultural emphasis on academic excellence and success was used to help interpret the findings. Future research should consider implementing research-based adult media literacy programs for immigrant parents to help them practice their parental mediation skills in the host culture.

This study examined the factors influencing willingness-to-repurchase for each class of airline service, and integrate the constructs of service quality, satisfaction and willingness-to-repurchase which were rooted on Engel-Kollat-Blackwell (EKB) model. The study focuses on the domestic and international arrival of passengers at Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos and Nnamdi Azikwe International Airport in Abuja. Information was gathered from domestic and foreign passengers who had post-purchase experience and had used the airline's services more than once. The survey data were obtained concurrently from arrival passengers at two major international airports using an electronic questionnaire through random and purposive sampling techniques. The data was analysed using the ordinal logit model and structural equation model. From the 606 respondents, 524 responses were received but 489 responses were valid for data analysis and reporting and were obtained mostly from economy and business class passengers. The study found that the quality of seat pitch, allowance of 30 kg luggage permission, availability of online check-in 24 hours before the departing flight, quality of space for legroom between seats, and the quality of seats that can be converted into a fully flatbed are the major service factors influencing willingness-to-repurchase economy and business class tickets. Also, it was found that passengers' willingness to repurchase is influenced majorly by service quality, but not necessarily influenced by satisfaction. These results reflect the passengers' consciousness of COVID-19 because the study was conducted during the heat of COVID-19 pandemic. Recommendations were suggested for airline management based on each class.