Religion, Culture, and the Monstrous: Of Gods and Monsters explores the intersection of the emerging field of “monster theory” within religious studies. With case studies from ancient Mesopotamia to contemporary valleys of the Himalayas to ghost tours in Savannah, Georgia, the volume examines the variegated nature of the monstrous as well as the cultural functions of monsters in shaping how we see the world and ourselves. In this, the authors constructively assess the state of the two fiel...

Second language (L2) pronunciation has become increasingly visible as an important area of L2 teaching and research. Despite the growing number of resources available focused on L2 pronunciation, technology in L2 pronunciation has received much less attention. While technology has been an enduring strand of L2 pronunciation research, it has also been somewhat inconspicuous. Indeed, research has examined a wide variety of technologies such as language-learning platforms, speech visualizatio...

Taiwan's economic growth since the 1970s has roots in its pre-war development and post-war formation of the Pacific trade triangle. By highlighting the historical perspective of the Japanese linkages and the geographic vantage point of Taiwan-Japan-USA trade triangle, Economic Development of Taiwan features a collection of papers by Frank S T Hsiao and Mei-Chu Wang Hsiao. Published mostly between 1989 and 2002, their analyses on Taiwan's pre-war and post-war early economic history debunk t...

Economic Development of Emerging East Asia presents economic studies of Taiwan and South Korea, compares them chiefly with Japan and the United States and finds that these East Asian countries are still in the process of emerging in the world economy. A timely quantitative and econometric analysis of the regional economies of emerging East Asia, the volume examines development indicators, effects of the 1997 Asian financial crisis, productivity growth, catching up and convergence of long r...

In an open economy, basic development strategies include promoting foreign exports, attracting foreign direct investment, and stimulating economic growth. Using time-series and panel data analyses, the first part of this book studies the causality and significance of these three strategies, individually or collectively, empirically and theoretically, during the catch-up growth and development phases of emerging East and Southeast Asian economies.While it is well-known that trade an...

In recent years, the fast growing economies of the Asia-Pacific region have attracted the attention of economists, politicians, researchers and business communities. The economic dynamics of the ever-growing Asia-Pacific region made the United States to adopt a "rebalancing strategy" toward Asia and to propose the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and Free Trade Area of Asian-Pacific (FTAA). With uncertainty about Brexit and the current Trump Administration, TPP and FTAA appear to be "dead."...

In recent years, the fast growing economies of the Asia-Pacific region have attracted the attention of economists, politicians, researchers and business communities. The economic dynamics of the ever-growing Asia-Pacific region made the United States to adopt a "rebalancing strategy" toward Asia and to propose the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and Free Trade Area of Asian-Pacific (FTAA). With uncertainty about Brexit and the current Trump Administration, TPP and FTAA appear to be "dead."...