The Cognitive Discrepancy Model of Loneliness (CDML) postulates that people experience loneliness when they perceive a difference between their desired (or expected) and actual levels of social relationships. Although the model has been widely cited, only a few empirical studies support this statement in Face-to-Face context. In the present study, we re-evaluate and expand the CDML in the digital context in two representative East Asian countries, Japan and China. The results partially support the idea of CDML that besides quantity and quality of SNS social activities, the self-defined and socially defined cognitive discrepancies are also potential predictors of feelings of satisfaction and loneliness, but the patterns may differ depending on communication purposes and cultural orientations.

The imagined contact method of cognitively manipulating intergroup relations has been reported to be widely successful in improving attitude toward the outgroup. However, little has been reported on its durability. Study 1 was conducted to test the stimulus scenario, involving 282 students who were given either an imagined contact scenario or a control, featuring Chinese as the outgroup. Pre-post measures of intergroup attitude were obtained. Imagined contact group showed some improvement in attitude. In study 2, the same method was applied to non-student participants (N=134), but this time, measurements were taken before, right after, one week after and one month after administering the imagined contact approach. Results indicated that the effect of imagined contact did not dissipate after one week, and even one month, particularly for the perception of social distance, but not for other measures. We discussed the potential of imagined contact in its application as a viable means of improving intergroup attitude toward Chinese in Japan.

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between the developmental networks of skilled Chinese employees in Japan and their career outcomes in relation to career satisfaction, organizational commitment, and turnover intention. The participants included 115 former Chinese international students who completed an online survey. The results revealed that there were multiple developers within and beyond the workplace that were involved in their career development. Furthermore, the content and structure of the skilled Chinese employees’ developmental networks were crucial for their career development in the host country and led to various career outcomes. Frequent communication with developers of the networks enhanced their career satisfaction in Japanese companies. Career support provided by developers within the organization played an essential role in their organizational commitment. However, their developmental networks were not associated with their turnover intention. The current study was the first to explore the influences of the developmental networks of former Chinese international students on their career development in Japan. This study contributes to an enhanced understanding of how to improve Chinese skilled migrants’ career outcomes in Japan.

The use of technologies in cross-campus teaching and learning is largely an unexplored domain, and even rarely examined are the effects of technology-mediated cross-campus teaching and learning on students’ intercultural competence. Two field studies, including a survey in Study 1 and a quasi-experiment in Study 2, were conducted over two consecutive semesters to find answers to four research questions and to test one hypothesis. Findings show that students somewhat enjoyed their cross-campus teaching and learning classes. What is more, their interactions with students from another school helped them become interculturally competent when they were willing to interact with outsiders. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.

The disruption caused by the Pandemic of COVID-19 accelerated the virtualization of educational services worldwide. In Latin American and Caribbean countries, higher education institutions have moved, in a very short period of time, from organizing their activities on campus to online or remote provision. In this scenario we find the Confucius Institutes, international cooperation partnerships between local and Chinese universities, fostered by the Chinese International Education Foundation with the objective of promoting Chinese Language and Culture abroad. This paper presents the results of a study concerned with the remote activities carried out by the Latin American and Caribbean Confucius Institutes, from January to July 2020, the first semester of the COVID-19 pandemic. The research method was a questionnaire sent to the local directors of the Confucius Institutes in Latin America and the Caribbean. Among the main conclusions of the study, it was found that Emergency Remote Teaching (ERT) was the general response of the CIs studied to the COVID-19 pandemic. The challenges faced by these institutes to quickly virtualize their activities were the lack of materials in the local language, lack of time to prepare classes properly and access and Internet connection. It is expected to accelerate the virtualization of CIs in the offer of classes and cultural activities because the technology works as a more inclusive tool, while the pandemic state served as a trigger for the development of other forms and teaching methodologies.

As the world has been going through the unprecedented challenges caused by Covid-19 pandemic, so has the online teaching, which has been replacing traditional bricks-and-mortar teaching during the period of "suspending classes without suspending learning" globally. Having tried such large-scale online teaching for four months for the first time in over three decades of teaching, the author has also gone through the unprecedented challenges, caused by her lack of experience and skills in online teaching, as well as problems of lack of students' self-discipline and lower effectiveness of online teaching and learning, etc., which have encouraged the author to think deeply. Since the Covid-19 still rages through the whole world, and the severe pandemic makes the global online teaching likely to continue in the near future when the new academic year begins, this paper is a reflection of the author on her online teaching experience and understanding, from which she tries to figure out how to make her coming online teaching better, how to combine the traditional face-to-face class along with online teaching in the future.

The imagined contact method of cognitively manipulating intergroup relations has been reported to be widely successful in improving attitude toward the outgroup. However, little has been reported on its durability. Study 1 was conducted to test the stimulus scenario, involving 282 students who were given either an imagined contact scenario or a control, featuring Chinese as the outgroup. Pre-post measures of intergroup attitude were obtained. Imagined contact group showed some improvement in attitude. In study 2, the same method was applied to non-student participants (N=134), but this time, measurements were taken before, right after, one week after and one month after administering the imagined contact approach. Results indicated that the effect of imagined contact did not dissipate after one week, and even one month, particularly for the perception of social distance, but not for other measures. We discussed the potential of imagined contact in its application as a viable means of improving intergroup attitude toward Chinese in Japan.