About Paternal Voices in Adoption Narratives

In his article About Paternal Voices in Adoption Narratives Fu-jen Chen examines the emerging voices of fathers in adoption discourse. Breaking the reticence and challenging the stereotypical profile of birth fathers and the father overall, birth fathers in narratives resort to essentialism or victimhood, a cultural imagination in adoption discourse. Further, Chen examines adoption narratives by adoptive fathers arguing that their reluctance to call for a father-to-father relationship — either rivalry or alliance — indicates a sign of disavowal of both subjective splitness and the structural deadlock. Chen argues that in paternal adoption narratives writing does not emerge as a political subject. Using the example of protagonist of Chang-rae Lee\u27s A Gesture Life Chen demonstrates a potential to develop into an ethical subject in Lacanian terms

Adoption, Cynical Detachment, and New Age Beliefs in Juno and Kung Fu Panda

In his article Adoption, Cynical Detachment, and New Age Beliefs in Juno and Kung Fu Panda Fu-Jen Chen situates his study within today\u27s prevailing climate of global consumption to argue that the 2007 film Juno—featuring an unconventional portrayal of the adoption triad and a cynical detachment from public values—not only trivializes and depoliticizes the practice of adoption but also serves as an ideological supplement to today\u27s global capitalism. Furthermore, Kung Fu Panda 1 & 2 (2008; 2011) provide two ideological messages of contemporary New Age spirituality— the belief in nothing in part I, and the attitude of inner peace in part II —that fit with and even fuel the world market economy

Effects of Financial Information Transparency on Investor Behavior in Taiwan Stock Market

Corporate governance is not a new issue in today\u27s world. Nevertheless, addressing the impact of financial information transparency on investor behavior in the stock market should be explored. With the large number of incidents of accounting fraud and misstatements revealed in the past five to six years, the integrity of business financial information becomes an increasingly important issue for investors and the general public. To provide greater definition of the roles and responsibilities of publicly-owned company executives and members of their boards of directors, U.S. President George W. Bush signed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) into law on July 30, 2002. This act provides a framework for greater financial transparency for publicly-traded companies and adds increased monitoring responsibility for representatives of the accounting and legal professions, as well as adding to the responsibilities of directors and executives. There has been little empirical research to explore this phenomenon in the Taiwan Stock Market. The purpose of this explanatory mixed study was to explore the relationship between financial information transparency and investor behavior. The study examined TSEC investor perceptions of financial information transparency dimensions, investor demographics, and investor experience as significant explanatory variables of investor behavior in the TSEC. This research design employed a mixed method approach, using 19 closed-ended questions, plus one open-ended question on a survey instrument. The survey questionnaire, with a closed-ended 1 to 9 Likert scale, was used to ask participants the extent to which they agree or disagree (9 = very strong agree, 5 = neither agree nor disagree, 1 = very strong disagree). Collected data was analyzed by SPSS-analysis. Five different statistical analyses were used in this study; descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, independent-samples t-test analysis, ANOVA analysis, and multiple regression analysis. In this study, investor behavior was measured by an instrument of investor behavior questionnaire. Three-hundred respondents participated in the data collection. Using systematic sampling, they were approached to complete the survey questionnaire at the entrance located outside an underwriter\u27s office. Findings indicated that ownership structure, financial transparency, and board structure were significant explanatory variables of investor behavior. Therefore, improved financial information transparency can lead to an increase investment in the Taiwan Stock Market

Introduction to Belief in Contemporary Global Capitalism

This special issue addresses the broad and complex nexus among three topics: belief, subjectivity, and contemporary global capitalism. It explores the intersection of material practices, ideational dimensions, and the subjective dynamics of global capitalism. The interdisciplinary contributions in this special issue come from authors in Australia, New Zealand, Taiwan, South Korea, Turkey, and the United States. And the articles gathered in this issue are to explore a wide range of topics, varying from entrepreneurship and digital capitalism to neoliberalism and postfeminism; from fundamentalism and terrorism to Protestantism and contemporary homosexual identity; from body and ableism to mind and New Age spiritualism; from ecologies of racial capitalism to transnational adoption. Engaging multimedia texts including memoir, novel, film, critical theory, speech, drama, and performance, their works together open up new avenues of examining the juncture of belief, subjectivity, and global capitalism

Mathematical models of unsteady operation of a packed column

Analytical solutions of differential equations applicable to extraction, ion exchange, or adsorption processes in packed beds are presented. Results are given for three different cases. The first case accounts for adsorption phenomena only. The second one includes surface adsorption on particles and the effects of longitudinal dispersion in the bed. The third one deals with diffusion in particles and longitudinal dispersion in the bed. In the mathematical modelling of these three cases, a linear equilibrium relationship between the solute in the liquid phase and solute in the solid phase is used. The first case is solved using the single boundary condition at the feed end of the column. In the second case, two different sets of boundary conditions are used. One set uses two conditions at the feed end: namely, the feed composition and its variation with respect to length. The other set uses an equation of continuity at the inlet of the column, and solute material balance over the entire column. In the third case, the feed composition is one boundary condition, while the other assumes a linear concentration profile at the-discharge end of the column. Since the boundary conditions involving the mass conservation law and the highest derivative of the differential equations are beyond the criterion which are found in the literature, the applications of boundary conditions for solving differential equations are extended. Comparisons are made with previous models and experimental data in the literature

Adopting the Unadoptable/Disabled Subject in the Posthuman Era

In his article “Adopting the Unadoptable/Disabled Subject in the Posthuman Era,” Fu-Jen Chen first examines three memoirs that demonstrate prevalent features of today’s narratives by parents with adopted children of special needs and next offers a theoretical and ontological investigation of disability. He suggests that we have to change the way we relate to disability: to recognize it not as an external limitation but an internal as well as pre-existent division and to re-orient ourselves to the ontological truth that we are always already “disabled/otherized” especially in the posthuman era when the body is seen to exceed existing boundaries of human topologies and to reinvent itself permanently along with prosthetic connections, accumulations, or consumption. Such a progress of “becoming,” though diversifying against the norm, does not necessarily challenge ableism and could be in tune with the logic of capitalism