Asia Social Issues

Strategies for Green Logistics Development in China

Wanphen Kuensman — 2026-01-16

This article proposes a strategic framework to advance green logistics in China and mitigate the environmental pressures associated with the sector’s rapid, growth-driven expansion. It synthesizes policy directions and practical measures that promote renewable energy adoption, improve energy efficiency, cut carbon emissions, and embed resource-efficient, environmentally responsible practices across logistics operations. The strategy extends to building eco-friendly infrastructure on land, sea, air, and rail, coordinated through modern technological systems, and leverages the Belt and Road Initiative to accelerate green logistics domestically and internationally. Evidence from Shanghai, Shenzhen, Beijing, and Hangzhou illustrates early successes. The framework is organized around six pillars—Government, Responsibility, Environment, Energy, Network, and Standards (GREENS): strong public policy and targeted infrastructure investment; shared accountability for sustainable action across sectors; systematic consideration of environmental impacts; substitution of fossil fuels with clean and renewable energy; collaborative public–private partnerships; and clear certifications with measurable indicators aligned to global norms. Together, these approaches reduce carbon emissions while improving the efficiency and competitiveness of China’s logistics system.

Highlights

Establishes the novel GREENS framework (Government, Responsibility, Environment, Energy, Network, Standards) to guide sustainable logistics transitions.
Leverages the Belt and Road Initiative to accelerate renewable energy adoption and eco-friendly infrastructure across all transport modes.
Demonstrates empirical success in major hubs like Shanghai and Shenzhen, proving that carbon reduction enhances logistical competitiveness.

The Comparison of ASEAN Gen Y Traveling Behaviors: Implications for Tourism Policy Development

Benjamaporn Chumnanchar — 2026-01-16

This article aims to compare the traveling behaviors of Generation Y (Gen Y) in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) or ASEAN Member States and analyze tourism policies that address these behaviors. Drawing on literature reviews and related studies, it examines Gen Y’s travel tendencies, the tourism policies of ASEAN, and the integration of these behaviors into policy frameworks. Currently, Gen Y represents the largest demographic group and demonstrates distinct traveling behaviors compared to other cohorts. Most Gen Y in ASEAN engages in lifestyle and experiential tourism, often characterized as niche travel. Understanding Gen Y’s evolving demands and behavior is pivotal for formulating effective tourism policies aligned with economic and social objectives. Moreover, integrating these insights into policymaking can foster the development of an integrated tourism management framework, contributing to sustainable tourism growth in ASEAN.

Highlights

Development of a Comparative Thematic Framework: This research presents a new conceptual framework for comparatively analyzing Generation Y's travel behavior across ASEAN Member States through various dimensions such as motivation, activities, and decision-making influences.
Strategic alignment between policies and behaviors: The research provides an in-depth analysis of how tourism policies across ASEAN countries are designed to meet the needs of Gen Y.

Film Medium and Interculturalism in the Digital Era: A Study of Frank Rajah Arase’s Ghana must Go

Divine Joe — 2026-01-16

In recent years, there has been a growing advocacy for recognizing cultural diversity and fostering mutual understanding, acceptance, and respect among people from different cultural and ethnic backgrounds. This movement is based on the belief that meaningful intercultural interactions benefit all members of society. Africa, a continent rich in cultural diversity, has long struggled with ethno-tribal conflicts, many of which have escalated into full-scale wars. These conflicts have led to significant loss of life, destruction of property, and irreversible damage to both individual and collective heritage. Given this reality, exploring innovative ways to promote peaceful coexistence in a culturally diverse modern Africa is crucial. Film, as a widely accessible medium in the digital era, offers a powerful tool for fostering intercultural dialogue. This study employs Pierre Sorlin’s interpretative analytical approach to analyze Frank Rajah Arase’s Ghana must Go, assessing how Nollywood films contribute to intercultural discourse while addressing the gap in existing research. Findings suggest that Nollywood’s portrayal of intercultural conflicts can foster dialogue on cultural acceptance. Hence, the study argues that films are effective media for promoting cultural harmony and conflict resolution in Africa.

Highlights

Nollywood’s portrayal of intercultural conflicts can foster dialogue on cultural acceptance.
The study deciphers and interrogates aspects of the film in view that reflects intercultural relationships within the African society with emphasis on West Africa and infers meanings upon which the discourse and suppositions on the subject matter are made.
The much-anticipated change towards embracing interculturalism is achievable through films as they have been proven to influence and form characters.

Narrative Review on Application of Digital Popular Science Design for the Protection and Dissemination of Chinese Intangible Cultural Heritage

Erjuan Ji — 2026-01-16

With the rapid advancement of digital technology, digital popular science design has shown considerable potential in preserving and disseminating China’s Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH). This research conducts a systematic review of relevant domestic and international literature from 2021 to 2025, supplemented by expert interviews, to examine the current applications and representative cases of digital popular science design in the preservation, restoration, display, and dissemination of ICH. The analysis identifies several challenges, including issues related to information integrity, technological updates, the maintenance of cultural authenticity, and multi-stakeholder collaboration. Employing Heeks’s design–reality gap model, the research systematically investigates the implementation gaps between design and practice, and proposes optimization strategies involving technological standardization, deepened cultural integration, expanded dissemination channels, and improved training and management mechanisms. This research aims to provide theoretical and practical insights for the digital popular science design of ICH, ultimately fostering its revitalization in the digital era.

Highlights

This research systematically reviews the application on Digital Popular Science Design in preserving China’s ICH, highlighting its success in digital documentation, restoration, and dissemination. The study identifies key implementation challenges consist of data integrity issues, and technological upgrade costs, using Heeks’s design–reality gap model. To bridge this gap, the findings propose strategies including technological standardization, deepening cultural integration, and establishing sustainable, multi-stakeholder governance and funding mechanisms. The research benefit is to provide practical insights for ICH revitalization in the digital era.

Preserving the Art of Quan họ Singing and Folk Theatrics amid the Fourth Industrial Revolution: A Preliminary Proposal

Nguyen Dinh Lam — 2026-01-16

Quan họ folk songs and folk theatrics are two typical traditional performing arts heritages of the Vietnamese people in Northern Vietnam. They are also intangible cultural heritages that need to be prioritised for preservation and promotion in the current context of globalisation. Quan họ is an art form of male and female reciprocal singing, showcasing some typical characteristics of ancient Vietnamese folk music. It has been included in UNESCO’s list of World Intangible Cultural Heritage.

Along with that, folk theatrics have been created and practiced by the Indigenous people of this region for thousands of years and are still being passed down through generations of Vietnamese people. However, this art form is at risk of disappearing from the folk cultural life of the region. Folk theatrics contain many philosophies about traditional ethics and profound humanistic thoughts and are among the important factors in shaping the traditional culture of the Vietnamese people in the North. Therefore, they need to be preserved and promoted today.

For many years, numerous research works have discussed the cultural, artistic, and historical values of these heritage forms – most of which also mention the challenges of preserving and promoting them in contemporary social life.

However, using digital technologies as a solution for these issues has not received much attention from scientific studies. These are two types of intangible cultural heritage with similar artistic content, allowing digital technology to be applied to digitise each of their artistic elements in detail. Based on research at the Vietnam Institute of Music, as well as surveys and fieldwork in villages, the objective of this paper is to present the key aspects of Quan họ singing and folk theatrical art.

The outstanding contribution of this paper is that, for the first time, specific details of each heritage content are clearly identified from the perspective of an in-depth researcher in ethnomusicology. This provides valuable insights for digital experts to support the preservation and promotion of similar folk art heritages across different cultures. However, a limitation of this study is that it does not analyse in depth the formulas and algorithms used for digitisation activities.

Highlight

Compared with previously published studies, this scientific article is the first to specifically research and propose digital technologies for detailed digitalization of traditional music and folk theatric performing arts, in the case of Vietnam.
The article shows that, in the process of digitizing traditional arts, there is a fundamental difference between digitizing folk music melodies and folk dances; between digitizing performance costumes and archaeological sources and knowledge of the art history of each art heritage; between the movement process of actors on folk stages and the scripts and chapters of each theatrical work; etc. This is an important scientific gap that this study discovered and studied.
The research results also suggest future research directions on strengthening the coordination and interdisciplinary cooperation between technology and arts to create quality scientific products, promoting the cultural industrialization process, especially in countries with long-standing and rich cultures like Vietnam.

Financial Evaluation of Subdistrict Health Promoting Hospitals Transferred to Provincial Administrative Organizations (2023)

Udom Tumkosit — 2026-01-16

This research article reports the study of the financial status of Subdistrict Health Promoting Hospitals (SHPHs) that were transferred from the Ministry of Public Health to Provincial Administrative Organizations (PAOs). The objectives are to (1) to determine the appropriate financial system for the primary health care services that SHPHs should adhere to after the transfer? (2) to assess the financial status of the SHPHs after the transfer, what are their strengths and weaknesses? (3) to use the study results to make recommendations for relevant agencies to consider. This research used a survey method, collecting both quantitative and qualitative data. The main source of information was 32 SHPHs from 8 provinces and 4 regions. The study results found that (1) after the transfer, the financial system of the SHPHs already had an appropriate structure. (2) The financial status of the SHPHs still had insufficient revenue and uncertainty in the allocation. (3) The research team used the study results to make recommendations by requesting that the amount of money and the allocation method be reconsidered more appropriate.

Highlights

This research shows that the transfer of the Subdistrict Health Promoting Hospitals (SHPHs) from the Ministry of Public Health to the Provincial Administrative Organizations (PAOs) significantly improved the financial status of the SHPHs, as the PAOs were able to increase their budgets by 34.52 percent of the budgets they received before the transfer.

Enhancing Students’Performance on the Test of English Communication in the Workplace(TEC-W) at Saengtham College, Thailand

Michael Bistis — 2026-01-16

The study explored the factors influencing students' performance on the TEC-W, examined their perceptions of the factors, and recommended enhancement strategies. The research utilized a mixed-methods design involving 52 third- and fourth-year Philosophy students at Saengtham College. After synthesizing relevant literature, the study identified five factors affecting TEC-W performance: student motivation and attitude, teaching, learning materials and activities in class, outside-classroom preparation, and TEC-W testing. A survey questionnaire was administered to scrutinize the participants' perceptions regarding these factors, and the data was analyzed using descriptive statistics. The findings revealed high satisfaction with teaching (x̄ = 3.72) and learning materials and activities in class (x̄ = 3.60), while student motivation and attitude (x̄ = 3.33), outside-classroom preparation (x̄ = 3.25), and student familiarization with the TEC-W testing (x̄ = 3.12) received moderate average scores. A focus group discussion (FGD) with 20 students was conducted to gain insights on improving TEC-W performance. The study recommends increasing student motivation and confidence in learning English, enhancing teaching quality to align with TEC-W requirements, improving learning materials and classroom resources, encouraging outside-classroom preparation by providing resources for independent study and familiarizing students with TEC-W testing through mock tests to reduce anxiety and improve testing skills.

Highlights

The study identifies five key factors influencing TEC-W performance: student motivation and attitude, teaching quality, learning materials and in-class activities, outside-classroom preparation, and TEC-W testing.
Using a mixed-methods design, the research conducted surveys and focus group discussions (FGD) with third- and fourth-year Philosophy students.
Results show high satisfaction with teaching and classroom materials, but only moderate levels in motivation, outside-classroom preparation, and TEC-W testing.
The study recommends strategies to build motivation and confidence, improve materials and resources, and use mock tests to enhance TEC-W exam readiness.

Social Innovation: The Way for Promoting English Language Learning to Enhance Community-Based Tourism to Global

Wanwisa Meunchong — 2026-01-16

This study examined the application of social innovation to promote English language acquisition within the context of community-based tourism development in Ban Wai Subdistrict, Lom Sak District, Phetchabun Province. The study aimed to provide English learning materials customized to local needs and tourism opportunities through stakeholder participation. The study employed a needs analysis framework and a six-step social innovation process, which encompasses inspiration, idea generation, prototyping, sustainability, scaling, and systemic change to identify significant communication challenges encountered by local tourism stakeholders, including restricted vocabulary and insufficient confidence in English proficiency. A prototype collection of English learning resources was created, encompassing subjects such as descriptions of tourist attractions, routing, local cuisine, traditions, local products, and accommodation. The research findings indicated that collaborative innovation not only improves English proficiency but also aids in sustainable tourism development. This model can provide a basis for establishing practical learning centers and integrating curricula to enhance local tourist capacity development. This method enables communities to pursue independent English learning and to enhance their competitiveness within the international tourism market.

Highlights

The appropriate means to enhance Community-Based Tourism internationally through social innovation
The guidelines for developing the potential of Local entrepreneurs through social innovation
The English learning material for Community-Based Tourism

Green Policy and Elections: Climate Change Campaigns of Five Thai Political Parties in 2023 Elections

Ladawan Khaikham — 2026-01-16

This study investigates the relationship between democratic governance and climate action in Thailand, with a focus on the 2023 general election. It aims to (1) examine how democratic governance influenced climate action during the 2023 election, and (2) identify the key challenges and institutional barriers that hinder the implementation of climate policies in Thailand. The researcher employs qualitative methods, specifically content analysis and thematic analysis, to examine the climate policies proposed by five major political parties—the Pheu Thai Party (PTP), Move Forward Party (MFP), Palang Pracharath Party (PPRP), Bhumjaithai Party (BJT), and the Democrat Party (DP)—through campaign documents, party manifestos, policy statements, and media reports.

Findings reveal that while political parties incorporated climate action into their electoral platforms, their approaches varied significantly. Progressive parties, such as MFP, emphasized renewable energy and strict environmental regulations, while establishment parties, such as PPRP, prioritized economic stability over environmental concerns. The study also identifies institutional barriers, including political instability, military influence, economic constraints, and fragmented governance structures that hinder effective climate policy implementation in Thailand.

This research contributes to the understanding of the relationship between democracy and environmental governance, highlighting the challenges of integrating climate policies within electoral politics. The findings underscore the need for stronger institutional frameworks, cross-party collaboration, and enhanced public participation to advance climate action in Thailand’s evolving democratic landscape.

Highlights

Explores how five major Thai political parties integrated climate change policies into their 2023 election campaigns.
Reveals ideological and policy differences between progressive and establishment parties regarding climate governance.
Identifies institutional barriers such as military influence and weak policy enforcement hindering climate action.
Analyzes the relationship between democratic governance and environmental policy effectiveness in Thailand.
Offers comparative insights into Southeast Asia's climate governance and implications for regional collaboration

The Whole School Approach Scouting Program for Character Development: The Bhutanese Scout Leaders and Parents’ Perspectives

Dago Rinzin — 2026-01-16

This study explored the perspectives of BSLs and parents on the roles and effectiveness of the WSAS Program in promoting character development among scouts in Paro district, Bhutan. Rooted in Bhutanese holistic education and Gross National Happiness (GNH) principles, the program aims to cultivate character traits such as self-discipline, teamwork, responsibility, integrity, loyalty, and resilience. Using a mixed-methods design, quantitative data were collected from 324 respondents via survey questionnaires, and qualitative insights from 46 interviewees through semi-structured interviews. The instruments were validated by five experts using the Item Objective Congruence (IOC) method (score +1). Reliability was assessed through a pilot study, which yielded excellent internal consistency with a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.99. Findings indicated a strong stakeholders’ consensus on the program’s positive impact, with parents and administrators reporting a highest level of agreement. Qualitative data emphasized the importance of culturally embedded practices and experiential learning in promoting ethical behavior, social responsibility, and emotional development. Despite challenges such as resource constraints and inconsistent implementation, the WSAS Program was recognized as an effective model for character education. The study recommended greater investment in leadership, resources, and collaboration to ensure sustainability.

Highlights

Purpose and Focus:
This study explored the roles and effectiveness of the Whole School Approach Scouting (WSAS) Program in promoting character development among Bhutanese scouts, based on the perspectives of Bhutanese Scout Leaders (BSLs) and parents in Paro district, Bhutan.

Positive Perceptions and High Agreement:
The results indicated a strong consensus that the WSAS Program effectively cultivated the targeted character traits, with parents and administrators reporting the highest level of agreement.

Mixed Methods Approach:
Using a mixed-methods design, the study combined survey analysis with semi-structured interviews to provide a comprehensive understanding of stakeholders’ perspectives.

Empowering Social Responsibility through Education: Development and Validation of a Social Entrepreneurship Education Scale in Chinese Higher Education

Chanta Jhantasana — 2026-01-16

This study addresses a critical gap in educational research by developing and validating a perception scale for Social Entrepreneurship Education (SEE) in Chinese higher education. As the role of universities in shaping socially responsible youth becomes increasingly vital, especially in rapidly transforming Asian societies, a robust instrument to assess students’ engagement with SEE is urgently needed. Drawing on a survey of 974 university students in Chongqing, China, this study employs Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) to examine the structure and antecedents of SEE perception. The analysis identifies five core components of SEE: pre-program awareness, program engagement, post-program impact, social implementation, and future commitment. Results reveal that prior experience, self-efficacy, social support, and institutional factors significantly influence SEE engagement, while empathy and moral obligation show limited predictive power. The validated scale offers practical and theoretical implications for policymakers and educators seeking to advance socially transformative education. This tool provides a framework for assessing SEE effectiveness and informing context-sensitive curriculum design for Asian youth empowerment.

Highlights

Develops and validates a five-dimensional Social Entrepreneurship Education (SEE) perception scale tailored to Chinese higher education.
Employs a combined CFA and PLS-SEM approach with 974 university students to ensure strong psychometric reliability and validity.
Identifies SEE as a structured learning journey spanning pre-program awareness, program delivery, post-program reflection, perceived impact, and future commitment.
Reveals social entrepreneurship intent and higher education institution (HEI) choice as the strongest predictors of students’ engagement in SEE.
Provides actionable guidance for universities and policymakers to design evidence-based SEE programs for Asian youth social innovation.

The Role of YouTube Grammar Tutorials in Enhancing EFL Learners’ Grammar Competence and Self-Regulated Learning

Mohammad Pakbaz — 2026-01-16

This study investigates the dual role of YouTube grammar tutorials in enhancing grammatical competence and fostering self-regulated learning (SRL) among Thai EFL learners. This area remains underexplored in digital-assisted language learning research. The study employed a quasi-experimental design involving 86 Thai freshmen non-English majors at Chiang Mai University, divided into an experimental group receiving YouTube-based grammar instruction and a control group taught through traditional methods. Grammar proficiency was assessed through pre- and post-tests, while SRL development was measured using self-regulation checklists and perception surveys. The experimental group demonstrated higher mean scores in grammar proficiency alongside reduced variability, indicating more consistent performance. In contrast, the control group showed only marginal gains, indicating a positive trend toward improvement, though not statistically significant. The self-regulation checklists revealed that sustained use of YouTube tutorials improved students’ self-regulated learning (SRL) skills over five sessions. Perception surveys indicate high satisfaction with comprehension, accessibility, and autonomy, demonstrating that engagement correlated with grammatical gains and SRL development. Despite these promising results, limitations such as sample size and reliance on self-reported SRL data highlight the need for further research. The study concludes that integrating YouTube grammar tutorials with traditional instruction can enhance language proficiency and learner autonomy, though careful implementation is essential to maximize benefits and address challenges.

Highlights

YouTube grammar tutorials led to significantly higher grammar gains than the CLT approach instruction.
Learners developed stronger self-regulated learning skills through repeated video-based cycles.
Students reported high satisfaction with comprehension, accessibility, and autonomy when using YouTube tutorials.