26 research outputs found
[[alternative]]Temperature tolerances of Trimeresurus snakes in Taiwan
No full text[[abstract]]There are three species of Trimeresurus snakes in Taiwan. T. gracilis is the endemic species and it can be found only at an altitude above 2000 meters in Taiwan. Whereas, the other species, T. mucrosquamatus and T. s. stejnegeri inhabit under 2000 meters. In Taiwan, the species that restrict at highland are sometimes the glacial relics of the Paleartic zoogeographical region. Reptiles are ectotherms and temperature may directly affect their physiology and behaviors. Therefore, temperature may become one of the major factors that set the distribution limit of Trimeresurus snakes along different altitude in Taiwan. I predict the critical thermal maximum (CTMax) of T. gracilis is lower than that of T. mucrosquamatus and T. s. stejnegeri. On the other hand, the critical thermal minimum (CTMin) of the latters should higher than that of the former.
Critical temperatures are defined as the thermal points at which the locomotory activity of an animal becomes disorganized and it loses its ability to escape from conditions that will promptly lead to its death. From the ecological viewpoint, critical temperatures are the lethal temperatures. Before testing the CTMax and CTMin, all snakes are individually acclimated at 10℃, 20℃ and 30℃ for more than two weeks. The criterion of CTMax is panting, and that of CTMin is losing the righting responses.
When acclimation temperature is higher, both CTMax and CTMin in all three species become higher. The CTMax of T. gracilis is lower than that of T. mucrosquamatus and T. s. stejnegeri in winter, but not in summer. The CTMin of T. s. stejnegeri is higher than that of T. gracilis in both winter and summer. However, the CTMin of T. mucrosquamatus is not always higher than that of T. gracilis. Consequently, my prediction is only partially supported.
The CTMax (36.6℃) of T. gracilis when acclimated at 10℃ is higher than the highest mean temperature （35.2℃） in lowland nearby Chiai City. On the other hand, the CTMin acclimated at 10℃ of all three species are lower than the temperature (6.1℃) that under ground 1 meter nearby Tatachia, Nantou County. So, I conclude that thermal tolerance is not the main factor that set the distribution limit of Trimeresurus in Taiwan.
Continuous quality improvement in module development in an ODL institution
No full textOpen University Malaysia (OUM) is an open distance learning (ODL) institution;
adopting the blended learning pedagogy which provides flexibility and timeeffectiveness
for self-paced study to its learners. Learners do self-learning most of the
time. This calls for quality learning materials to support the learning process in an ODL
setting. OUM responded to this call by leveraging on Internet-based technology to
deliver educational content such as e-modules, video lectures, e-forums etc. to its
learners. Learners can now access the University’s e-content (2,431 e-modules and 288
video lectures) anytime, anywhere, via OUM’s learning management system,
myINSPIRE. Using descriptive and inferential statistics as the main analytical tool,
this study aims to gain insight into learners’ feedback on one of the core learning
materials – the e-modules. Responses from learners from various programmes and
clusters were collected via online surveys for two semesters (January 2018 and May
2018). A total of 238 and 488 learners responded to the January and May surveys
respectively. This paper discusses thee-modules in 10 dimensions from the
instructional design perspective encompassing areas such as the design, formatting,
self-check and activity questions, organisation of the content, ease of reading, graphics
as well as overall satisfaction. The results of this study would be able to provide some
insights to the education provider on the quality of the e-modules from the instructional
design perspective. (Abstract by authors
从勒菲弗尔三要素理论理解翻译者的文化背景和目标读者的文化影响翻译 ：以比较两本《论语》的英译本為例 = Understanding translator’s cultural background and receiving culture affects translation from the perspective of Lefebvre’s three-factor theory : a comparative study of two English-translated analects works
No full text上世纪 90 年代，西方翻译理论界出现了“文化转向”。其中，勒菲弗尔翻译操控理论就是翻译研究“文化转向”下的一个重要理论。该理论主要探讨翻译在什么样的文化背景下产生，以及译作给译入语文化带来的影响。安德烈·勒菲弗尔是翻译操控论的一面旗手，他对这一理论的形成以及完善做出了重要贡献。勒菲弗尔将翻译视为对原作的改写，是对原作“操控”，打破了以原文作为标准评价翻译的传统思维。他指出翻译不能真实地反映原文的风貌，主要是因为它始终受到三大因素的操纵:意识形态、诗学观和赞助人的力量。本文借重当代翻译研究学派重要学者安德烈·勒菲弗尔的制约翻译与改写的三要素理论，通过对中国古代重要文化典籍《论语》的两个英译本(辜鸿铭译本,埃德拉·庞德译本) 的比较研究，从两个译本的译文特色探讨影响《论语》英译的重要力量及其表现。通过两个译本的对比研究发现，辜鸿铭和庞德在翻译论语时都分别受到了意识形态,诗学规范和赞助人不同程度的影响。从意识形态层面来看，辜鸿铭受到原语晚清时期社会主流意识的影响，选择向西方译介论语，从文化层面改变西方社会上层人士对中国文化的重新认识，实现爱国救民的根本目的；庞德受到 二十世纪初世界大战和经济危机的混乱社会秩序的影响，选择英译论语，企图从东方儒学经典中追寻根治西方资本主义文明的弊病。从诗学层面来看，辜鸿铭受到目的语诗学的影响，译文选材主题符合维多利亚时期文学的道德教诲功能；庞德受到他所倡导的意象主义诗学运动的主张，译文简洁，融入意象。从赞助人层面来看, 辜鸿铭和庞德在翻译论语时所受到赞助人的影响非常有限。两位译者在翻译论语时，主要受到不同时代意识形态和诗学因素的影响，译本呈现出不同的特点。而这些都是因为演绎着的文化背景。辜鸿铭的论语翻译主要受到了意识形态的影响，译文呈现出以下特点：为了让西方读者接受并理解论语思想，达到儒家文化在西方的传播改变西方上层人士对中国的认识，采取了归化的翻译策略；在文化的翻译处理上，尽量删除中国的专有名词，引用西方读者熟悉的作家学者，便于西方读者理解论语思想。庞德在英译论语时，受到意识形态的影响，企图抓住论语的精髓，采取了异化的翻译策略。然而，诗学是操控庞德论语英译的重要力量，他主要受到意象主义诗歌创作三原则的影响，译文呈现出句式简洁，措词融入意象，口语体的押韵格律的显著特色。所以不管是收到意识形态或诗学的影响，都是翻译者被当时的文化所影响，二爷影响了翻译作品。Manipulation theory, which arose in 1990s, is a representative of the cultural change in western translation study world. It mainly explores the cultural background in which translation is produced and the influences that translated work brings to the receiving culture. André Lefevere, as the initiator of this theory, contributes a lot to the formulation and improvement of the study of translational manipulation theory. He proposes that translation is rewriting and manipulation in essence and further generalized three key factors which govern and manipulate one’s translation: ideology, poetics and patronage. In the present thesis, Andre Lefevere's Three-Factor Theory is applied to the comparative study of two English versions of the great Chinese classic the Analects respectively by Ku Hung Ming and Ezra Pound. Through the comparative study of two translations, the author attempts to reveal the three manipulative forces embodied specifically in each version and the most affective force in each translation. Based on the study, it is drawn that Ku Hung Ming and Ezra Pound were manipulated respectively by the three affecting factors (ideology, poetics and patronage) when they were doing the translation of the Analects. In terms of the impact of ideology, under the influences of the social dominant ideology of the original text in the Late-Qin Period, Ku Hung Ming determined to translate the Analects and introduce the Confucian thoughts to the West with the purpose of changing the Western glitterati’s attitude to Chinese culture and saving the declining China in cultural level; Influenced by the chaotic world order caused by the world wars and financial depression at the first half of 20th century, Pound chose to translate the Analects in the hope of seeking the cure to eradicate the ills deeply rooted in the Capital Civilization from the Confucianism in the East. In terms of the impact of poetics, influenced by the literary function (Moral Enlightenment) in the target language in the Victorian Age, Ku Kung Ming chose to translate The Analects and his translation corresponds with the literary criterion in the receiving culture; However, Pound’s translation is concise and rich in poetic and pictorial splendor due to the manipulation of the poetics of the Imagism Movement he actively pioneered. In terms of the impact of patronage, the two rewriters were relatively free from the constraints of patronage，however the receiving culture have affected their translations. Without wanting to reach targeted audience, they have to translate their work for the intended audience to understand. The two translations were mainly manipulated by different ideologies and poetics in the different periods and have different features. This shows that translators are always affected and manipulated by the cultural background of that period. Among the three factors, ideology is most influential to Ku Hung Ming’s translation whereas poetics exerts the greatest impact on Pond’s translation. Influenced by his ideology, Ku Hung Ming formed his own translation purpose: changing the Western intellectuals’ attitudes to Chinese culture and saving the declining China in cultural level. In order to get Western readers understand Confucian thoughts expressed in The Analects, he adopted the strategy of Domestication” and used unique ways of dealing with “Universe of Discourse” such as the deletion of Chinese Proper names and a lot of quotations from famous European writers. Under the influences of his ideology, Pond adopted the translation strategy of “Foreignization” in order to catch the essence of the Confucianism in the original text. However, the factor of Poetics is the most important force manipulating Pond’s translation. Following the three Imagist poetic principles in writing, he adopted succinct sentence patterns and a diagrammatic method to render Chinese characters, creating a vivid image for English readers. Therefore, his translation is quite like a poem, characteristic with visual image and brevity. Both Ku Hung Ming and Pond creatively translated The Analects. Having been manipulated by different ideologies and poetics in the different periods, their translations are distinct in style with sharp epochal feature. This thesis further corroborates Lefevere’s Manipulation Theory and in the meantime, it provides a theoretical and practical basis for the literature translation criticism in the future.Bachelor of Art
A study of information security governance- a case study of government sectors
No full text碩士根據行政院研考會(Research, Development and Evaluation Commission, Executive Yuan, RDEC)指出，高達90%以上的政府機關表示，在落實資通安全管理及防護時，資通安全技術能力需加強、缺乏相關經費、沒有專責處理人員為三項極待克服的困難。於是政府開始思考可否藉由資通安全治理(Information Security Governance, ISG)的機制，使機關首長更能參與資安相關活動而改善上述問題。因此，行政院科技顧問組(Science and Technology Advisory Group of Executive Yuan, STAG)於「資安推動發展政策整合研究－資安治理機制與資安建設持續發展規劃委託研究計畫」中，將資通安全治理納為研究議題之一，期望藉由此計畫發展適用於我國政府機關的資通安全治理制度。
本研究之作者曾參與計畫中。該計畫是以資通安全治理為主軸，除了發展適用於我國政府機關的資通安全治理制度，並研擬適用於政府部門機關之資通安全治理成熟度評估工具。本研究採用個案研究的多重個案整體設計類型為研究方法，邀請三政府機關進行資通安全治理成熟度的評估，並搭配深入訪談活動，深入了解其資通安全工作落實程度與現況，且進一步探討未來落實資通安全治理可能遇到的困難。本研究成果主要利用資通安全治理成熟度評估工具評估三機關之資安治理成熟度並了解其現況，且研擬建議的五階段執行步驟，並提出未來落實可能遭遇人力與經費不足等的困難。According to the report of RDEC (Research, Development and Evaluation Commission, Executive Yuan), more than 90% government sectors indicate that there are three imperative difficulties awaited being overcome, including the abilities of information security, a lack of related experiences and dedicated personnel. Therefore, the government starts to contemplate the problems and expects the officer of each government sector could pay close attention and join more security-related activities through adopting Information Security Governance Mechanism. Hence, STAG (Science and Technology Advisory Group of Executive Yuan) proposed a research plan developing Information Security Governance Mechanism which fits government sectors of our country.
The author of this study is one of the members of the research plan. This research plan develops an Information Security Governance Maturity Assessment Tool in addition to government sectors’ Information Security Governance Mechanism. Through multiple case studies and in-depth interview, we discuss three government sectors’ ISG Maturity and real conditions of information security, and further, propose potential difficulties.
The research indicates three government organizations’ ISG maturity and real security conditions, recommend execution steps and proposes the difficulties of human resources and budget.中文摘要.................................................. I
英文摘要................................................. II
目錄.................................................... III
圖目錄.................................................... V
表目錄................................................... VI
第壹章 緒論.............................................. 1
第一節 研究背景與動機.................................... 1
第二節 研究目的.......................................... 2
第三節 研究範圍與限制.................................... 3
第四節 論文架構.......................................... 3
第貳章 文獻探討.......................................... 5
第一節 治理之定義........................................ 5
第二節 IT治理之定義...................................... 6
第三節 資通安全治理...................................... 9
一、資通安全治理之定義.................................. 9
二、資通安全治理與IT治理............................... 15
第四節 資安治理成熟度之內涵............................. 17
第五節 國內外相關文獻................................... 21
第參章 研究設計......................................... 26
第一節 研究方法......................................... 26
第二節 研究對象......................................... 26
第三節 研究流程......................................... 29
第四節 資安治理成熟度評估問卷設計....................... 31
第五節 過程分析......................................... 32
一、資料蒐集過程分析..................................... 32
二、問卷設計過程分析..................................... 33
三、訪談過程分析......................................... 35
第肆章 研究結果與分析................................... 36
第一節 三機關資安治理成熟度評估結果..................... 36
第二節 現況分析......................................... 38
一、機關資安治理成熟度差異分析........................... 38
二、訪談內容比較......................................... 42
三、訪談結果分析......................................... 43
第三節 資通安全治理建議執行步驟......................... 46
第四節 可能遭遇之困難................................... 47
第伍章 結論與建議....................................... 49
第一節 結論............................................. 49
第二節 建議............................................. 50
誌謝..................................................... 51
參考文獻................................................. 52
附錄一 機關資通安全治理訪談內容......................... 56
附錄二 機關資通安全治理成熟度評估問卷(修訂前)........... 73
附錄三 機關資通安全治理成熟度評估問卷(修訂後)........... 82
圖1 IT治理架構圖...........................................8
圖2 資通安全治理概念模式圖................................11
圖3 資通安全治理構成要素..................................14
圖4 資通安全治理與IT治理關係圖............................16
圖5 公司治理、IT治理、資通安全治理等三者關係圖............17
圖6 資通安全治理成熟度模型................................18
圖7 研究流程圖............................................29
表1 資通安全治理成熟度評估表..............................21
表2 國內相關文獻..........................................22
表3 國外相關文獻..........................................24
表4 機關A之業務職掌.......................................27
表5 機關B之業務職掌.......................................28
表6 機關C之業務職掌.......................................28
表7 三機關資安治理成熟度評分結果..........................36
表8 三機關業務IT依賴度結果................................36
表9 三機關資安治理成熟度之整體評價........................37
表10 機關資通安全治理訪談彙整.............................38
表11 三機關重點對照表.....................................43學號: 695630441, 學年度: 9
Readability of Modules and its Relationship with Student Performance in Open Distance Learning (ODL)
No full textReadability of Modules and its Relationship with Student Performance in Open Distance Learning (ODL)
No full textImaging Cytometry of Human Leukocytes with Third Harmonic Generation Microscopy
No full text© Author(s) 2016. Based on third-harmonic-generation (THG) microscopy and a k-means clustering algorithm, we developed a label-free imaging cytometry method to differentiate and determine the types of human leukocytes. According to the size and average intensity of cells in THG images, in a two-dimensional scatter plot, the neutrophils, monocytes, and lymphocytes in peripheral blood samples from healthy volunteers were clustered into three differentiable groups. Using these features in THG images, we could count the number of each of the three leukocyte types both in vitro and in vivo. The THG imaging-based counting results agreed well with conventional blood count results. In the future, we believe that the combination of this THG microscopy-based imaging cytometry approach with advanced texture analysis of sub-cellular features can differentiate and count more types of blood cells with smaller quantities of blood
Author Correction: Molecular mechanism of K65 acetylation-induced attenuation of Ubc9 and the NDSM interaction
No full textA correction to this article has been published and is linked from the HTML and PDF versions of this paper. The error has not been fixed in the paper.</jats:p
Indo-European vocabulary in Old Chinese : a new thesis on the emergence of Chinese language and civilization in the late Neolithic age
No full textThis study is a much expanded version of the paper I read at the XXXII International Congress for Asian and North African Studies on August 28, 1986 in Hamburg (Germany). Contents 1. Recent developments in the field of historical linguistics 2. Monosyllabic structure of Chinese words and Indo-European stems 3. Tonal accents of Middle Chinese 4. Preliminaries on the comparison of consonants and vowels 5. Some IE stems corresponding to Chinese words of entering tone 6. Middle Chinese tones and final consonants of IE stems 7. Some IE stems corresponding to Chinese words of rising tone 8. Some IE stems corresponding to Chinese words of vanishing tone 9. Some IE stems corresponding to Chinese words of level tone 10. Reconstruction of Middle Chinese vocalism according to Yün-ching 11. Old Chinese vocalism 12. Vocalic correspondences between Chinese and IE 13. Initials of Old Chinese 14. Initial consonant clusters in Old Chinese as seen from IE-stems 15. Proximity of Chinese to Germanic 16. Relation of Old Chinese to neighboring languages 17. Emergence of Chinese Empire and language in the middle of the third millennium B.C. Appendix * Abbrevations * Bibliography * Rhyme Tables of Early Middle Chinese (600) * Rhyme Tables of Early Mandarin (1300) * Word Index o English o Pinyin In 1786, just over two hundred years ago, comparative historical linguistics was born, when Sir William Jones (1746-1794) discovered the relationship between Old-Indian Sanskrit, Greek, and Latin. Since then, the emerging Indo-European philology has thrown much light on the early history of mankind in Eurasia. During the past two hundred years, many suggestions were also made in regard to relationships of Indo-European to other languages such as Semitic, Altaic, Austronesian, Korean etc., but Indo-Europeanists commonly rejected such attempts for want of convincing evidence. As to Chinese, Joseph Edkins was the first to advance the thesis of its proximity to Indo-European. In his work China's Place in Philology. An Attempt to show that the Language of Europe and Asia have a Common Origin (1871) he presented a number of Chinese words similar to those of Indo-European. In his time, Edkins' thesis seemed bold and extravagant. But today, more than a hundred years later, we are in a much better position to carry out a comprehensive and well-founded comparative study. Since the end of the nineteenth century, many Sinologists have been engaged in reconstruction of the mediaeval and archaic readings of Chinese characters. Among them, Karlgren (1889-1978) was the most successful, and in 1940 he published a comprehensive phonological and etymological dictionary entitled Grammata Serica. In the meantime, the Indo-Europeanists Alois Walde (1869-1924) and Julius Pokorny (1887-1970) were devoting themselves to the compilation of a useful etymological dictionary. The result was the Indogermanisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch by Pokorny (1959) which provides a solid basis for our lexical comparisons. Soon thereafter, some Sinologists made use of the two dictionaries by Karlgren and Pokorny to compare Chinese and Indo-European words. In 1967, an unaffiliated German scholar, Jan Ulenbrook, published an article "Einige Übereinstirnrnungen zwischen dem Chinesischen und dem Indogermanischen", in which he claimed that 57 words are related. Shortly afterwards, Tor Ulving of the University of Goteborg, Sweden, wrote a review of this article framing the title as a question: "Indo-European elements in Chinese?" While working on his thesis on word families in Chinese, Ulving compiled for his own use two dictionaries: "Archaic Chinese - English" and "English - Archaic Chinese", and discovered thereby 238 Chinese words similar to Indo-European roots. In spite of this considerable number of word equivalents, however, Mr. Ulving became discouraged and, as he told me in his letter of April, 1986, has given up his researches in this field. The skepticism, common among Indo-Europeanists in regard to comparative studies with other languages, is largely based on the dogmatic opinion that only morphology is relevant but not vocabulary. Since the typology of Chinese seems to preclude a cognate relation to Indo-European, they are inclined to discard any lexical correspondences as merely accidental or onomatopoetic. Besides, prehistorical contacts and mixtures between these languages seem not conceivable, as the Indo-Europeans are supposed to have originated in Northern Europe or at best in the Central Asian steppe, thousands of miles away from East Asia. Hence, any research into a relationship between Old Chinese and Indo-European languages would be but futile from the outset. Yet there are also opposing views among Indo-Europeanists. Investigations into Germanic languages and the oldest Indo-European language, Hittite, led some of them to a critical revision of the prevailing conception about a Proto-Indo-European. Hermann Hirt (1934) for instance states: "Inflexion of Indo-European languages is due to a relatively late development, and its correct comprehension can be achieved only by proceeding from the time of non-inflexion." And Carl Karstien (1936) holds the opinion that "Chinese corresponds most ideally to the hypothetic prototype of Indo-European." Regarding vocabulary, there are striking similarities in the monosyllabic structure of the basic words. In modern German and English, all the words of everyday speech are monosyllabic and their stereotypical structure is: initial consonant(s) + vowel(s) + final consonant(s). The same word structure is valid for Chinese as well. It is fundamentally different from the disyllabic structure of Altaic words and from the triconsonantal-disyllabic structure of Semitic words. Characteristic of the monosyllabic word structure is, besides, the complexity of the syllable nucleus, which consists of different vowels and vowel clusters in contrast to the monophthongal vocalism of polysyllabic words. Another objection raised to comparisons between Chinese and Indo-European is the existence of tonal accents in Chinese. Since most modern Indo-European languages have only expiratory accents, Chinese is considered to be a highly exotic language. Yet, even in Chinese, the use of tonal accents as a means of lexical differentiation is a result of comparatively recent development in the long history of Chinese language, the earliest monuments of which date back to 1300 B.C. (cf. Chang 1970, p.21). Unknown to Old Chinese, the existence of tonal accents was for the first time mentioned in the 5th century by Shen Yüeh (441-513). In Middle Chinese (Mch.) there were four tone categories: A P'ing-sheng 平 a level tone (which developed into Mandarin tone 1 or 2). B Shang-sheng 上 a rising tone (Mandarin tone 3). C Ch'u-sheng 去 a vanishing, i.e. falling tone (Mandarin tone 4). D Ju-sheng 入 an entering tone with a staccato effect, the word being abruptly stopped by a final consonant -p, -t, -k. (In Early Mandarin the words of this tone lost their final consonant and were distributed among the tones 2, 3 and 4, respectively according to the phonation of initials). In Middle Chinese, words of the entering tone were the only group which still preserved the final stops and therefore a close syllabic structure. So they are most appropriate for convincing comparisons with monosyllabic Indo-European word stems. The final stops -p, -t, -k of the entering tone are nowadays still extant in daily speech of several dialects in South China as well as in Chinese borrowings in Japanese, Vietnamese and Korean. As a speaker of a Taiwan dialect of Minnan origin, I could immediately identify some Indo-European stems with corresponding Chinese words. Besides, the command of Japanese and German was also a great help for this study. In the following lists I have chosen a number of Indo-European stems which are phonetically and semantically equivalent to Chinese words. Correspondences in initial and final consonants refer to the points of articulation, thus we have equations: IE labials = Old Chinese labials, IE dentals = dentals, IE l, r = dentals (cf. p. 31); Ø, i (final and medial) IE velars = velars and laryngeals, and occasionally (the so-called "satem"-forms) IE velars = dental sibilants and affricates. Regarding the manner of articulation, there are no regular correspondences between Indo-European and Chinese consonants like Grimm's law which is valid among Indo-European dialects to a certain extent. But this is not astonishing, since in Old Chinese the alternation of initials in voicing was a conventional means of creating new words from one basic form. The rules of vocalic correpondences among Indo-European dialects are quite complex. Vowels permanently change their qualities from one language to another, and from time to time within one language also, as is well known from the history of English pronunciations. Generally, the vocalism of Old Greek is taken as the standard for Proto-Indo-European. Old Chinese vowels corresponds nearly (cf. p. 30), but the details about the reconstruction of Middle and Old Chinese vocalism will be treated later (pp. 26-30). For the moment, it is necessary to notice in advance that the stem of ablauting Germanic verbs is the form of preterite or noun, rather than that of infinitive as assumed hitherto. Therefore, in some cases I must slightly modify the basic vowel of verbal stems given in Pokorny, in order to get better basis for comparison. As Old Chinese verbs were non-flexional, they might probably have preserved the original vowel the best
ADAPTING TO A FOREIGNER IN THE FAMILY: TAIWANESE MOTHERS IN LAW AND TRANSNATIONAL MARRIAGE
No full textDuring the past two decades, a body of literature has emerged on marriage between Taiwanese men and South-East Asian women. Almost all the studies that explore aspects of the lived experience of female marriage migrants have mentioned the role of mothers-in-law, but these older women were rarely the central focus. This thesis examines the experiences of Taiwanese mothers-in-law in families with cross-border marriages, based on in-depth qualitative interviews with 20 women with South-East Asian daughters-in-law; it raises questions about how these women position themselves, both during and after their sons’ marriages and how they manage their lives with someone who comes from a different cultural background. The study shows women who are actively engaged in varied strategies across different family life stages in order to meet their expectations of seeing their sons married and having a docile daughter-in-law. In their attempts to accomplish their sons’ marriage, they not only become involved in the marriage decision but also provide all sorts of assistance to ensure that their sons will marry a traditional spouse. After marriage, the agency they develop to negotiate their relationship with these foreign women is influenced both by their previous experience as daughters-in-law and by gossip in the women’s communities. However, these women do not necessarily hold absolute power in this family setting, despite the constraints placed on their foreign daughters-in-law and their disadvantaged position as immigrants. They still encounter difficulties in adapting to the dissimilar cultural values, behaviour and practices that are brought by their foreign daughters-in-law. Through studying these women’s stories, I have expanded knowledge about families with foreign daughters-in-law and therefore added a new dimension to the study of cross-national marriage relationships
