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Though Cartesian dualism has been criticized for decades, it still prevails as a strongly dominant cultural mindset rooted in people’s minds, especially in the social environments that we experience. Along with it, there is not only a loss of attention to our own bodies but also a loss of the recognition of the experience of inter-subjective reciprocity. Therefore, I hope, through the methodology and virtue of phenomenology, especially from the phenomenological-ontological account of the body/flesh from the modern French philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty, to help my readers to overcome convincingly and detach themselves from the traditional Cartesian mindset. I argue that the body is born as a communicative-reciprocal being that sustains a priori connection with all other things in the world, and with the world. The body is a lived body and a transcendental being that cannot be reduced to fit in the present reductionistic mathematical-scientific idealized frameworks. After pointing out the insufficiencies in traditional mathematical scientific and Cartesian accounts of the body in Chapter One, my argument will be unfolded along with reflections on the common experiences in daily life and the textual analyses respectively contributed by Merleau-Ponty’s works The Phenomenology of Perception, especially in Chapter Two, and The Visible and the Invisible, especially in Chapter Three.

This research is to assess the current status quo, strengths, and weaknesses of financial consumer protection mechanisms in Macao. According to the World Bank, financial consumer protection can bring positive impact on the development of financial sector, broadening financial inclusion and fostering economic growth. In 2022, under the backdrop of COVID-19 and downturn in economy, Macao Government announced its ambition to recover and diversify the economy of Macao by leveraging “1+4” Diversified Development Strategy, in which developing modern finance is one of the main priorities. The new Financial System Act took into effect on 1st November 2023 and this Act will enable non-financial institutions to apply for temporary licenses on fin-tech innovations within a controllable risk area. In the local context, does Macao have a strong financial consumer protection mechanism in place to goal for developing modern finance and face challenges brought by fin-tech? In this research, a mixed method consisting of doctrinal legal research method and comparative legal research method is adopted. 10 jurisdictions (Ireland, Singapore, Australia, United Kingdom, Malaysia, Hong Kong, China, European Union, Canada, and United States) were selected in comparison of rights for financial consumer protection based on the G20/OECD High-Level Principles on Financial Consumer Protection and the results of which were then compared to the rights for financial consumer protection in Macao. The findings of this study show that the main strength of financial consumer protection mechanisms in Macao lies on the supervision of the Monetary Authority of Macao (AMCM) on the banking sector and insurance sector, other financial institutions according to international principles; however, the in-depthness of work done by Macao in financial consumer protection is not as much as those done by other jurisdictions: in Macao, there is no policyholder protection scheme in the event of failure of insurance companies; no mystery shopping and consumer survey done by oversight bodies; narrow range of definition of vulnerable consumers; no financial literacy survey; no in-depth competition law; no in-depth guidelines to monitor advertising materials for financial products; no database for consumers to search for unregulated firms and scammers; no in-depth financial educational materials about the rights of financial consumers. It is recommended that Macao Government can learn from United Kingdom, Canada and European Union to adopt behavioural insights in developing financial consumer protection policy to protect financial consumers from being exploited by the financial service providers based on the consumers’ behavioural biases. Some literature suggested that consumers are vulnerable in digital landscape. Therefore, it is strongly recommended that Macao Government shall take proactive actions to strengthen the current financial consumer protection mechanism by adhering to the G20/OECD High-Level Principles on Financial Consumer Protection, in order to develop modern finance and protect consumers from the risks posed by fin-tech

As Macau's society rapidly develops, the education system of Macau also continues to develop, including early childhood education. The competency of early childhood teachers in Macau plays an important role in the future development of education. Teacher competency includes four main dimensions: educational ability, work attitude, psychological factors, and motivation. This paper focuses on exploring these dimensions and the differences in teacher competency among Macau's early childhood educators, considering their personal background variables. Moreover, this research investigates the factors such as the working attitude of teachers, their professional development needs, and motivation that affect their teaching in early childhood education. Historically, understandings of teacher competency in Macau's early childhood education were primarily analyzed through t-tests and one-way Anova of survey data, which tend to have lower reliability and validity. This paper employs confirmatory factor analysis among other methods to conduct empirical research on the current state of teacher competency, aiming to advance the development of teacher competency in Macau with more reliable data. This paper uses literature review methodology to gather relevant research and analyzes the information gathered, by using a self-assessment questionnaire on early childhood teacher competency to conduct a survey among 187 early childhood teachers in Macau. This can help to understand their competency levels and how these correlates with their personal background variables. The integrated data from the teacher self-assessment questionnaires indicate that the overall level of teacher competency in Macau is acceptable. In terms of the 4 early childhood teacher competency factors, the psychological factors got the highest score, while their educational abilities got a lower score. The differential analysis conducted on the evaluated teachers shows there are significant differences in early childhood teacher competency among different age groups and years of teaching experience. This research aims to provide more data and information to Macau's education related departments and kindergarten management, to formulate targeted teacher training and career development plans of teachers, which can help to improve the overall teaching quality and job satisfaction of teachers in Macau's early childhood education. The research suggests that future research should expand the research subjects to early childhood teachers from different cultural backgrounds, increase the use of interviews and case analysis (adopting mixed research methods), and analyze the differences in personal background variables and the competency of Macau's early childhood teachers. 澳門社會飛速進步的同時，其教育體系也在不斷發展，而幼兒教育在塑 造孩子未來發展的基礎上扮演著至關重要的角色。故澳門幼兒教師勝任力對於 幼兒教育的未來發展具有不可忽視的重要性。教師勝任力(Teacher Competency) 包含教育能力、工作態度、心理因素和動機等四大維度。本文著重探討這四個 維度和教師的個人背景變項與澳門幼兒教師勝任力的差異性。同時，也會關注 教師的工作態度、專業發展需求及動機等因素對幼兒教師教學的影響。過去， 人們對澳門幼兒教師勝任力的了解較多使用 t 檢驗及單因數變異數進行問卷數 據分析，其有效性及可靠性相對較低。針對上述問題，本文採用驗證性因素分 析等方法對幼兒教師的勝任力現狀進行了實證研究，期望以更可靠的數據推動 澳門幼兒教師勝任力的發展。本文使用文獻分析法整合相關文獻及就研究資訊 進行分析，並使用幼兒教師勝任力自評定問卷對澳門 187 名幼兒教師進行問卷 調查，以了解澳門幼兒教師的勝任力及個人背景變項與澳門幼兒教師勝任力的 差異性。整合教師自評問卷數據後結果如下: 澳門幼兒教師勝任力總體水準尚可， 就勝任力特質表現而言，幼兒教師的心理因素最好，幼兒教師的教育能力較差。 而對被評價幼兒教師進行差異分析的結果顯示：不同年齡段和教齡與幼兒教師 勝任力有顯著差異。 本研究有望為澳門教育相關部門和幼稚園管理層提供更多數據和資訊， 以制定針對性的教師培訓和職業發展計劃，提高澳門幼兒教育整體教學品質和 教師職業滿意度。建議未來研究擴展研究對象至不同文化背景的幼兒教師、增加訪談和個案分析的部分(採用混合研究方法)和分析個人背景變項與澳門幼兒 教師勝任力的差異性。

The extent of citizens' trust in government determines the success or failure of e-government initiatives. Nevertheless, the idiosyncrasies of the concept and the broad spectrum of its approach still present relevant challenges. This work presents a systematic literature review on e-government trust while elaborating and summarizing a conceptual analysis of trust, introducing evaluation methods for government trust, and compiling relevant research on e-government trust and intentional behavior. A total of 26 key factors that constitute trust have been identified and classified into six categories: Government trust, Trust in Internet and technology (TiIT), Trust in e-government (TiEG), Personal Beliefs, Trustworthiness, and Trust of intermediary (ToI). The value added of this work consists of developing a conceptual framework of TiEG to provide a significant reference for future in-depth studies and research on e-government trust.

"This study investigates the perspectives, challenges, and strategies of STEM teachers in Macau as they integrate STEM education into their curricula. STEM teachers in Macau generally consider the integration of STEM education essential for enhancing students' creativity and problem-solving abilities. However, during the implementation process, they face challenges such as insufficient resources, limited opportunities for professional development, and difficulties in interdisciplinary collaboration, which restrict the effectiveness of STEM teaching. This study employed a qualitative research approach, conducting in-depth, semi-structured interviews with STEM teachers in primary and secondary schools in Macau to understand their experiences and needs. Purposeful sampling was used to ensure diversity and representativeness of the sample. The findings indicate that schools lack sufficient STEM teaching resources (such as equipment and materials), and limited professional development opportunities prevent teachers from effectively mastering new technologies and teaching methods. Furthermore, interdisciplinary teaching is constrained by challenges in collaboration and curriculum design. Low student engagement and insufficient parental support also affect the effectiveness of STEM education. The results suggest that schools should enhance resource allocation, promote professional development for STEM teachers in Macau, and encourage interdisciplinary teaching collaboration to improve the quality of STEM education, thus strengthening students' creativity and problem-solving skills. These findings offer valuable insights for STEM educators and policymakers to foster the comprehensive development of STEM education.

Today, social media has become one of the main marketing strategies used by marketers and practitioners to target travelers from all over the world. Macau is a city that relies heavily on tourism for economic development, however, little is known about how social media affects tourists’ choices to travel to Macau. This study explores the role of the popular social media platform Xiaohongshu in influencing Chinese tourists’ travel decisions and information acquisition when visiting Macau. This article uses qualitative research methods to conduct semi-structured interviews with 15 participants. Research shows travelers rely on Xiaohongshu’s user-generated content and detailed guides. Food, route selection and itinerary arrangements, and short-term itinerary arrangements are the most frequently mentioned search tags by travelers. The platform’s personalized recommendations and efficient content presentation enhance the user experience, but concerns about content credibility remain, especially the potential for commercial bias in food recommendations. Travelers assess the credibility of content through a variety of strategies, including looking at multiple posts, evaluating user interactions, and the platform’s IP address display capabilities. Although travelers pay more attention to positive reviews when deciding to travel to Macau, users also consider travel pitfalls posts to improve their travel experience. In addition, travelers are less willing to share content on the Xiaohongshu platform after the trip, which is attributed to personal habits and perceived creativity complexity. The research results provide relevant practitioners with the perspectives and decision-making behaviors of Chinese travelers who use Xiaohongshu when making itineraries to Macau, and provide guidance for their marketing strategies.

The understanding of how people accept and embrace new policies is vital in today's world. This paper introduces an original way of looking at this by adapting the widely recognized Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology 2 (UTAUT-2). The goal is to provide a foundational model for assessing policy acceptance. More specifically, we adapted the UTAUT-2 framework to study how Macau residents perceive the "Northbound Travel for Macau Vehicles" policy, which allows cars with Macau registration plates to enter China. Using structural equation modeling software (SmartPLS), we analyze data collected from 136 respondents who experienced the policy.Our findings reveal that Performance Expectancy (PE) and Habit (HB) significantly influence individuals' intention to take advantage of the policy. In other words, people are more likely to embrace policies they perceive as beneficial and that align with their existing habits. Effort Expectancy (EE) and Facilitating Conditions (FC) do not significantly impact acceptance, perhaps as a result of participants' familiarity with the policy and their resource availability. Surprisingly, while not directly tied to usage, Social Influence (SI) shows a high mean value, suggesting its potential role in policy acceptance when influential individuals adopt the policy. This pioneering research contributes to the field by bridging the gap between technology acceptance models and policy studies. Most importantly, it validates the use of the UTAUT-2 as a technology framework that is adapted for assessing policy acceptance.

In a world where sustainable food choices are becoming increasingly important, this study explores the connection between food neophilia — the desire to experiment with new foods — and people's willingness to include insects in their diets. Using the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), our research delves into how neophilia (NP) moderates respondents’ attitude (ATT), social norms (SN), and perceived behavioral control (PBC) concerning the adoption of insects as a food source. The analysis draws from 160 self-administered surveys and employs structural equation modeling. Conducted in the context of Macau SAR (China), our study reveals the pivotal role that neophilia plays in shaping consumer attitudes and intentions. Notably, respondents generally expressed a willingness to explore novel culinary experiences. A positive moderating effect of neophilia on attitudes toward insect consumption is observed, suggesting that individuals with higher neophilia scores are more inclined to hold favorable intentions regarding insects as food. However, neophilia's influence on moderating SN and PBC exhibits contrasting effects, implying that a strong inclination for food neophilia may not necessarily leadto increased social pressure or perceived control in adopting insect-based diets. In light of these findings, this study recommends that practitioners and policymakers promote insect consumptionas an innovative and adventurous means of achieving sustainable nutrition. While the primary focus is on the impact of food neophilia on people's intention to consume insects as food, the study underscores the urgent need for diversified and sustainable dietary choices to address escalating environmental concerns and secure a resilient food supply for future generations.

This study employs a qualitative research method to explore kindergarten teachers' perceptions of gender stereotypes, their views on gender equality education, and how these concepts are implemented in their teaching practices. Additionally, it analyses the challenges faced in promoting gender equality education in Macao and offers relevant recommendations. The study participants comprised eight in-service kindergarten teachers (four males and four females) working at four kindergartens in Macao. Through semi-structured in-depth interviews, the study delves into the teachers' experiences and perspectives on implementing gender equality education in kindergartens. The study concludes with the following findings: 1. Teachers have a basic understanding of gender equality; however, influenced by societal traditions and family cultures, gender stereotypes still persist in their teaching. While teachers can recognise and reflect on the presence of these stereotypes and understand the core concepts of gender equality education, they still lack a comprehensive grasp of its substantive content. 2. When practising gender equality education, teachers exhibit varying degrees of gender stereotyping and bias. Male teachers, in particular, display more evident gender bias compared to female teachers, especially in their disciplinary approaches towards male and female students, with male teachers being more stringent with boys. However, no significant gender differences were observed in classroom performance, behavioural discipline, academic achievements, or task distribution. This suggests that teachers treat students of both genders relatively equally, with no clear link to their personal backgrounds. 3. Regarding gender equality and social status, male teachers generally express higher satisfaction levels than female teachers. Male teachers believe that gender equality has been achieved, whereas female teachers feel that women remain at a disadvantage in terms of work conditions and family responsibilities. 4. Teachers identify several challenges in promoting gender equality in education in Macao. This includes deep-rooted societal cultures, insufficient awareness and understanding of gender equality education among the government, the public, teachers, and parents; gender stereotypes in textbooks and school environments; the lack of gender-related content in textbooks; and the gender imbalance among kindergarten teachers, with a marked shortage of male teachers. 5. Teachers suggest that the government should collaborate with experts to provide more relevant teacher training or community seminars for teachers and the public. These initiatives should aim to challenge gender stereotypes, re-evaluate the content of textbooks and the setup of school environments, and promote the feasibility and necessity of male kindergarten teachers. Based on the study's findings, the researcher offers several recommendations for advancing gender equality education in Macao, providing concrete ideas and reasonable references. It is hoped that these suggestions will serve as valuable references for future related research. 本研究採用質性研究法，旨在探討幼稚園教師對性別刻板印象的看法、性別平等教育的理念以及在教學中實踐的情況，並分析在澳門推行性別平等教育所面對的挑戰及相關建議。研究對象來自澳門四所幼稚園的八位在職幼稚園教師（4男4女），研究透過半結構式深度訪談，深入探討教師在幼稚園推行性別平等教育中的經驗和觀點。本研究得出以下結論： （一） 教師對性別平等已有基本概念，但因受到社會傳統文化及個人家庭文化的影響，在教學中仍存在性別刻板印象。教師能察覺和反思這些刻板印象的存在，並瞭解性別平等教育的基本核心概念，然而對其實質內容的理解仍有不足之處。 （二） 在實踐性別平等教育時，教師表現出不同程度的性別定型及性別偏見。其中，男教師相較於女教師表現出更為明顯的性別偏見，尤其體現在針對兩性的學生的管教方式上，男教師對男生的態度較為嚴厲。然而，教師在課堂表現、行為紀律、學業成績、職務分配等方面則未顯示出顯著的性別差異，能相對平等地要求及對待兩性的學生，這與教師的個人背景因素並沒有明顯關聯。 （三） 在兩性平等與社會地位問題上，男性教師的滿意度普遍高於女性教師。男性教師認為兩性地位已達至平等，而女教師則認為在工作待遇和家庭層面上，女性仍處於較為不利的地位。 （四） 教師認為在澳門推行性別平等教育面臨的挑戰包括：根深蒂固的社會文化，政府、大眾、教師及家長對性別平等教育的關注和認知不足；教科書及學校環境設置存在的性別刻板印象，以及教科書中缺乏性別議題內容；幼稚園教師的性別比例失衡，男教師明顯偏少。 （五） 教師建議政府需要與專家合作，提供更多相關的師資培訓或社區講座，供教師及市民參與，並以突破性別刻板印象為目標，重新審視教科書及學校環境的設置，同時加強宣傳男性幼稚園教師的可行性及必要性。 基於上述研究結果，研究者對澳門性別平等教育的推行提出了若干建議，並提供了具體的思路和合理的參考依據。期望這些建議能為未來相關研究提供參考。

Macau, as a densely populated city, has been facing a prominent challenge in fulfilling the rapidly growing demand for land due to its small geographical size. The limited availability of land exacerbates the conflict between urban development needs and land supply, leading to an imbalance in land resource allocation. This scarcity of land not only hinders the city's ability to meet its growing population's housing needs but also contributes to a lack of social space. The absence of adequate outdoor gathering areas and communal spaces has resulted in the fragmentation of communities and a fading sense of community in the society of Macau. As the urban environment undergoes relentless development, the social fabric of Macau is undergoing a transformation. Communities are becoming fragmented into smaller groups, and chance encounters and serendipitous social interactions are being neglected or excluded. Social events primarily take place within dedicated indoor spaces that cater to groups, further isolating different segments of the population due to the limited and subpar outdoor gathering space available. This dissertation aims to examine the possibility of developing a new housing prototype that could provoke connections between segregated communities. By introducing a combination of communal spaces and vertical circulation spaces, the design seeks to create opportunities for social interaction and the revitalisation of community bonds that could eventually fit into a hyperdense city. To achieve this, the dissertation will begin with a comprehensive site analysis of the site, considering both the physical constraints and the potential benefits for social space creation. Furthermore, the study will draw insights from relevant literature and architectural projects that have addressed relevant challenges, exploring effective strategies for fostering community engagement and creating inclusive social spaces. The design process will emphasise the integration of communal spaces that encourage spontaneous interactions and vertical circulation spaces that facilitate movement and connectivity between different community segments.

Integrating financial technologies with green initiatives is critical to the sustainable development agenda. This is particularly true for newly developed smart cities like Tongzhou, the sub-city center of Beijing. To assess the adoption of green fintech in Tongzhou, this paper extends the EnergyAugmented Technology Acceptance Model (EA-TAM) to incorporate two green factors – environmental awareness and green knowledge. This paper applies structural equation modeling techniques to analyze data from 403 respondents who live, work, or study in Tongzhou and finds allhypothesized constructs significant. Since green knowledge is significant to the adoption of green fintech, this paper further divides the sample into a high-education group (162 respondents with university-or-above degrees) and a low-education group (251 respondents with post-secondary-orlower degrees) to evaluate the impact of education. All the hypothesized factors are significant to the high-education group,but environmental awareness and perceived usefulness are insignificant to the low- education group. Hence, the results provide evidence that people in the newly developed smart city adopt green fintech due to their environmental sensitivity. The adoption of green fintech is more environmentally sensitive for people with high education levels.

An increasing number of countries have launched their central bank digital currencies (CBDC) in recent years, but the economic impacts of CBDC adoption are underexplored. To empirically assess how CBDC adoption influences regional economic integration, this paper investigates the Greater Bay Area, where China carried out one of its first digital renminbi pilot programs. The Greater Bay Area provides a good example because the growing acceptance of digital renminbi in the area can potentially mitigate transaction costs and risks due to the exchange rate volatility of the Chinese renminbi, Hong Kong dollar, and Macao pataca. CBDC adoption can lead to greater real and financial integrations by facilitating cross-border trade in goods and services. This paper evaluates deviations from uncovered interest rate parity, purchasing power parity, and real interest rate parity across Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macao based on monthly interest rate and price data from January 2016 to December 2022. The time series have mean values near zero, which validate the parity conditions and indicate high degrees of financial, real, and economic integrations. The Markov regime-switching regression model identifies three regimes: (1) pre-Covid, (2) post-Covid, and (3) post-CBDC. The Covid-19 outbreak brought lower integration and stability, but the launch of the CBDC restored some of the pre-Covid integration and stability. Regimes 1 and 2 are persistent, and transitions from Regime 3 back to Regime 1 are probable. Hence, this study finds evidence that CBDC adoption improves regional economic integration in the short and long run.