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The majority of Hong Kong filmmakers have pursued co-production with China filmmakers for having the Mainland market at the expense of local styles and sensitivities. To many critics, the two-part series of Ip Man and Ip Man II provide a paradigmatic case of film co-production that sell the tricks of Chinese kung fu, regurgitating the overblown Chinese nationalism against Japanese and kwai-lo. The purpose of this study is to rectify such observation of the Ip Man series.

The authors read the series deconstructively as a postcolonial text in which Hong Kong identity is inscribed in the negotiated space in between different versions of Chinese nationalism.

The analysis points to the varying subversive features in the series from which Hong Kong’s colonial experiences are tacitly displayed, endorsed and rewritten into the Chinese nationalistic discourse whose dominance is questioned, if not debased.

This paper advances new research insights into the postcolonial reinvention of kung fu film and, by implication, the Hong Kong cinema in general.

This paper aims to challenge the longstanding cosmopolitan interpretation of Hong Kong, particularly why this global city fails to absorb China equally through its great inclusiveness and flexibility as before. On the contrary, rising tensions, conflicts and resistance could be founded between Hong Kong and China these days.

By using Hong Kong cinema as an analytical lens, this paper seeks to throw light on the cinematic landscape of post-1997 Hong Kong and, by implications, the overall destiny of postcolonial Hong Kong under Chinese rule.

The postcolonial Hong Kong, although lacking a symmetric status and equal weight, remains an active player with Chinese hegemony that appeals to the newfound market power to consolidate their systemic control on the city. By acting upon itself with the subjectivity and reflexivity from itself, postcolonial Hong Kong takes many actions to do justice that criticizes the political and ideological correctness and challenges the contemporary national authority from one-party rule.

This paper demonstrates a new in-betweenness in the relation to the making of postcolonial Hong Kong. This paper advances insights into a postcolonial reinvention of the politics of disappearance that remains underexplored.

As the modern manufacturing twining seamlessly with logistics operations for value adding services, logistics service is becoming more and more significant. Under this research background, the purpose of this paper is to introduce an innovative evaluation model for customer satisfaction using fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (FAHP).

This model uses triangular fuzzy concept to determine the weight of each index so that subjective or objective weighting is addressed. A case study from two large express companies in China is used to demonstrate the feasibility and practicality of the proposed model for examining customer satisfaction.

One of the key findings is that Company B has higher customer satisfaction than Company A due to its quick response and flexible logistics strategy. This paper has several contributions. First, A FAHP-based customer satisfaction evaluation model is proposed for the logistics service. Second, the triangular fuzzy concept is introduced to determine the weight of each index so as to addresses the limitation of subjective or objective weighting method. Third, a case study demonstrates the implementation of the model.

First, this paper considers the fuzzy AHP for the customer satisfaction evaluation. Comparing with other multi-criteria decision-making methods like data envelopment analysis, evidential reasoning approach, and multi-attribute value theory will be carried out in the near future. Second, the manufacturing modes like make-to-order, make-to-stock, and mass-customized production may have different logistics support so that the final products may reach the final targets quickly. How to evaluate various mode-based logistics and their customer satisfactions have great significance. Finally, Big Data-enabled customer satisfaction evaluation approaches may be a possible solution.

Based on the data from questionnaire, it is found that, in practical applications, manufacturing enterprises should amend the index system according to the specific business scope and the production characteristics. Manufacturing enterprises need to collect large amounts of data through market research and conduct the measurement on the related coefficient between the measurement indicators and customer satisfaction degree. After that, they can make sorting and filtering on the measurement index according to the measurement results.

Customer satisfaction is very important to manufacturing and logistics enterprises due to its time constraints. The physical products with services like logistics are paid close attention to by the final customers.

The contribution of this paper is as follows: a FAHP-based customer satisfaction evaluation model is proposed for the logistics service; triangular fuzzy concept is introduced to determine the weight of each index so as to addresses the limitation of subjective or objective weighting method; a case study was used to demonstrate the implementation of the model. One of the key findings is that Company B has higher customer satisfaction than Company B due to its quick response and flexible logistics strategy.

This paper proposes an evaluation model for prefabricated construction to guide a supply chain with controllable costs. Prefabricated construction is prevalent due to area limitations. Nevertheless, the development is limited by budget control and identifying the factors affecting cost. The degree of close collaboration in the supply chain is closely interconnected with cost performance that includes direct and indirect factors. This paper not only quantizes these factors but also distinguishes the degree of influence of various factors.

System dynamics is applied to simulate and analyze the construction cost factors through Vensim software. It can also clarify the relationship between cost and other influencing factors. The input data are collected from an Internet of Things (IoT)-enabled system under a Building Information Modeling (BIM) system and Hong Kong government reports.

Simulation results indicate that prefabricated construction cost is mainly influenced by government promotion degree (GPD), working pressure from on-site construction (WPOSC), prefab quality (PQ), load-bearing capacity per vehicle (LBPV) and mold quality (MQ). However, it is more sensitive toward GPD, which indicates that the government should take measures to promote this construction technology. On-site worker management is also essential for the assembly process and indirectly influences the construction cost.

This paper quantifies indirect influential factors to clarify the specific features for prefabricated construction. The investigated factors are limited.

The contractor can identify all factors and classify the levels of influence to make decisions under the supply chain system boundary.

The input data are collected from an IoT-enabled system under a BIM system and Hong Kong government reports. Thus, the relationship between construction cost influential factors can be investigated.

This paper quantifies indirect influencing factors and clarifies the specific features in prefabricated construction. The contractor could identify these factors to make decisions and classify the levels of influence under the supply chain system boundary.

The purpose of this paper is to identify attributes and practices that are salient for effectiveness in middle- and senior-level service leadership positions.

Critical incident interviews were conducted with 17 key informants, who were service leaders in various service sectors in Hong Kong, and with ten stakeholders.

Grounded theory analysis generated a 7 Cs model with seven categories of service leadership attributes and practices: character, choreography, care, creativity, charisma, collaborating and competence self-improvement, and 24 constituent concepts. There was concordance between pairs of key informants and stakeholders.

Further research could investigate the impact on frontline service leaders’ performance if one or more of the 7 Cs are perceived to be absent or deficient among leaders at more senior levels, and whether there are acceptable substitutes for particular Cs.

The 7 Cs model identifies service leadership attributes and practices across diverse sectors.

The 7 Cs model provides a map for orienting the developmental preparation of individuals, who are aspiring to become middle- and senior-level leaders in economies that have become highly dependent on service.

While the investment in construction projects has increased over the past few decades, low construction project productivity (CPP) appeared to be persistent, thereby reflecting an “investment-in-failure” paradox between the investment and CPP. Hence, this paper aims to develop a systematic and holistic CPP evaluation framework to explain the apparent paradox in the construction industry.

The paper first reviews the literature about the theories of system, production, principal–agent and project success evaluation to re-conceptualise the CPP and proposes a two-stage CPP evaluation framework. The framework is subsequently explored through a sequential qualitative mixed-methods design within the context of the Hong Kong construction industry by combining 32 semi-structured interviews with senior industry experts and exploratory case studies, with three real-life construction projects.

The paper identifies three system boundaries for CPP evaluation, that is, parameter, timeframe and stakeholder, and develops a two-stage CPP evaluation framework to indicate site efficiency and utilisation effectiveness, thereby accessing the productivity of both the construction and post-construction stages. The “investment-in-failure” paradox associated with current CPP evaluation approaches is primarily attributed to the narrowly defined CPP boundaries.

The qualitative exploration of the evaluation framework only focusses on the Hong Kong construction industry. Further case studies within other urban contexts could be used to improve the generalisability of the findings. Quantitative research is also necessary to advance theoretical development of the two-stage CPP evaluation.

The systemic CPP conceptualisation and the two-stage CPP evaluation framework support the systems thinking of industry stakeholders and enable them to formulate holistic strategies for long-term CPP enhancement.

The research demonstrates the needs to expand the system boundaries of CPP to reflect its systemic value and to shift the paradigm of CPP evaluation from being output-orientated and quantity-focussed to being outcome-orientated and value-focussed.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of recent civil justice reforms in five jurisdictions including Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, the UK and Canada on the resolution of civil and commercial disputes.

The study, drawing on a comparative cross‐jurisdictional methodology, reviews the scope and nature of such reforms and examines lessons learned regarding implementation.

The findings of the research indicate that such reforms are most effective where regular evaluation to fine‐tune mediation rules occurs concurrently and in conjunction with the implementation of such reforms.

The limitation of this research is that it is confined to already existing court case statistics, judicial commentaries and reviews of the five selected jurisdictions.

The practical implications of the study find that in general, civil justice reforms have made some progress in achieving the aims of encouraging cost‐effective, expeditious and amicable case handling within the civil justice system.

The paper contributes to a global analysis of effective approaches to civil justice reform and in particular reforms in mediated case handling.

This paper, based on forty in‐depth interviews with teachers and principals in Hong Kong, utilizes the insights of feminist organization studies to explore the persistence of gender inequalities in primary school teaching. Two common practices, namely the assignment of women and men to teach lower and higher grades respectively and the monopoly of men in positions of disciplining and authority, are centered. The data suggest that schools and teachers actively construct and reproduce gender inequalities by trivializing teaching of young children as babysitting, naturalizing women as natural caregivers, and normalizing the use of threat in disciplinary control. My analysis also argues that these routine and pervasive gendering processes are not often acknowledged or challenged, which have the effects of marginalizing caring work, overlooking the emotional labor of women, valorizing a masculine view of authority, encouraging men and boys to compete for power via aggression, and hence producing a masculinist workplace.

In this study, the authors examined demand-side credit in rural China with the aims of understanding attribute preferences and the willingness of farmers to pay for credit.

The authors implemented an in-the-field discrete choice experiment (DCE) using a D-optimal block (6 × 9 × 3) design applied to 420 farm households across five Chinese provinces (Shandong, Sichuan, Shaanxi, Jiangsu and Henan) in the summer and fall of 2018. The DCE included six attributes including the interest rate, term of loan, type of loan, type of repayment, type of institution and mobile banking services.

Conditional and mixed logit results indicated a downward sloping credit demand curve with variable elasticity across regions. Provincial willingness-to-pay (WTP) indicators suggested that farmers were willing to pay a premium for long-term ( 0.03–0.687%) and low collateral credit loans ( 0.79–2.93%). Also, four of five provinces indicated a preference for loan amortization rather than lump-sum payment. Interestingly, in comparison to the Agricultural Bank of China (ABC), only farmers in Shandong, Sichuan and Shaanxi indicated a preference for rural credit cooperatives (RCCs)/banks and the Postal Savings Bank of China (PSBC). Another quite surprising result was bank services, in our case, access to mobile banking did not appear to induce WTP for agricultural credit. While conditional and mixed logit regression coefficients were similar (and therefore robust), the authors found that there was substantial heterogeneity across attribute preferences on term of loan, type of loan and amortization. Preferences for type of lender and mobile banking were generally homogenous. This result alone suggested that lenders should consider offering a suite of credit products with different attributes in order to maximize the potential pool of borrowers. While there were some differences across provinces, farmers appeared to be indifferent to lenders, and it did not appear that offering banking services such as mobile banking had any bearing on credit decisions.

This paper presents a first step in using in-the-field choice experiments to better understand rural finance in China. Although the sample size satisfies conventional levels of significance and rank conditions, the authors caution against attributing results to China as a whole. Different provinces have different institutional structures and agricultural growing conditions and economies and these effects may differentially affect WTP for credit. Although by all indications farmers were aware of credit, not all farmers, in fact a minority, actually borrowed from a financial institution. This is not unusual in China, but for these farmers, the DCE was posed as hypothetical. Likewise, the study’s design was based on a generic credit product typical of rural China, and the authors caution against making inferences about other products with different attributes and risk structures.

This study is motivated by the rapidly changing dynamic in China's agricultural economy. With specific reference to new laws and regulations about the transfer of land use rights (LURs), China's agricultural economy is undergoing significant and rapid change which will require better understanding by policy makers, lenders and practitioners of the changing credit needs of farmers, including the new and emerging class of commercial farmers.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the authors believe that the result provided in this paper present the first use of in-the-field DCE and are the first to be reported in either the English or Chinese literature on rural credit product design.

In this investigation, a linear encoder system based on the ultrasonic transducer has been proposed. Ultrasonic transducers are usually designed for distance measurements, such as the time of flight method and sonar system. These applications are defined as discrete-length measurement technologies. The purpose of this study is to develop a continuous displacement measurement system using ultrasonic transducers.

A modified signal processing based on heterodyne signaling is implemented in this system. In the proposed signal processing, there is an automatic gain control module, a phase-shifting module, a phase detection module, an interpolation module and especially a frequency multiplication module, which can enhance the resolution and reduce the interpolation error simultaneously.

The proposed system can generate the encoding signals and is compatible with most motion control systems. For the experimental result, the maximum measurement error and standard deviation are about −0.027 and 0.048 mm, respectively. It shows that the proposed encoder system has the potential for displacement measurement tasks.

This study reveals an ultrasonic linear encoder that is capable of generating an incremental encoding signal, accompanied by a corresponding signal processing methodology. In contrast to the conventional heterodyne signal processing approach, the proposed multiplication method effectively reduces the interpolation error that arises because of multiple reflections.