What Readers and Reviewers say about Half Baked in Taiwan: "Entertaining, also very educational." Troy Henley, Columbus, Ohio. "Half Baked in Taiwan is worth reading. Fowler writes wellshe hits the nail on the head." Mat Matich, Topics, (American Chamber of Commerce in Taiwan magazine.) "Well-paced, funny and all-around excellent." Francesca Kelly, Editor-in-Chief, Tales from a Small Planet "One of the few elite authors who covers Taiwan with insight and intelligence." Jeremy Teigen, University of Texas political science grad student, & former Taiwan resident "I read it in one sit...laughed myself achy." Karen Schmitt, editor New Views Southern Taiwan "Professional and highly readable." Jack Barker, editor www.travelmag.co.uk "Fowler, a world traveler and accomplished observer of human nature, has written a book that is more than just a travelogue." Joan Viener, Amazon reviewer "A humorous blend of travelogue, culture clash and fish-out-of-water tales." Chris Mautner, reviewer Harrisburg Patriot News, USA "Fowlers description is a wry take on Taiwan." John Bugbee, journalist, York Sunday News, USA "Fowler writes about her two-and-a-half years in Taiwan in a witty new book she calls Half Baked in Taiwan." Ann Diviney, Evening Sun Style Editor, USA In Half Baked in TaiwanBeth Fowler invites readers to saddle up, mount a beast called culture shock and hang on for a jolting ride. Filled with anecdotes of an Americans experience of life in Taiwan, the episodes are about everything from the seemingly mundane task of mailing a letter in a foreign land to the fated moment when Fowler concludes that the so-called Westernization of Asia is a terribly misleading exaggeration. "The overall experience of being a Westerner living in Taiwan can cause one to feel a vast range of emotions. From the very start Half Baked in Taiwan is exceedingly humorous, insightful, and easy to relate to. I found myself laughing so much that my co-workers took notice," says Steven Aukstakalnis, expatriate and editor based in Taiwan. Hear that noise? Thats the crunch of two cultures clashing. Taiwans culture is quintessentially Chinese. Saving face, Chinese Lunar New Year, Chinese cuisine and the exacting social art of gift-giving are just a few of the Asian customs to which visiting Westerners must adapt themselves, for if they dont, they risk constantly being at odds with their hosts, hosts like Jane Lan, a Taiwan native with strong opinions. Jane provides an Oriental counterpoint to Fowlers Yankee perspective. Mr. and Mrs. Tsai, who are so Asian theyve shunned adopting Western first names, introduce Fowler and her husband to the Taiwan that tourists usually skim over. Taiwan, a republic whose leaders proclaim it is Asias leading democracy while fearing military attack from Mainland China, is home to unique cultural quirks unparalleled in any other Asian country. Millions of stray dogs patrol the streets and the betel nut industry wreaks environmental, human and social damage. On the aesthetic front, Taiwanese puppet theater endures as a cultural heritage handed down from generation to generation. With Fowler as a guide, readers will meet aboriginal children, attend a wedding, meet a sexy woman with prescient knowledge, and zip around the Republic on an "iron horse." Even supposedly simple tasks like buying a bunch of broccoli at the local "wet market" become, for the half-baked foreigner, a mind-shifting experience worth writing home about. Learning to be a foreigner entails making mistakes. Constantly. Some people emerge out the other end of the cross-cultural gauntlet with a broader, more tolerant view of the world and its inhabitants. Other people come off the expatriate experience with jingoistic bitterness. And yet others "go native." People wanting

THE ABSENCE OF SOULWARE IN HIGHER EDUCATION The book offers an analytical account of higher education in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Mainland China with examples of best practices from higher education in the US for guidance. This book is Professor Way Kuo’s attempt to address issues that remain to be challenges for universities in the globalized 21 Century, namely academic autonomy and freedom, seamless integration between research and teaching, curricula update, innovative and problem-driven research, and adopting best global practices, based on his reflections about higher education from a global perspective through his personal experience as a senior academic leader in the US and Hong Kong. Borrowing from the languages of computer science, this book not only talks about the hardware and software in higher education, which refer to the infrastructure and the physical entities that provide an environment conducive to good teaching and research, it also highlights the importance of a third category for achieving great success: the presence of a certain mindset, a willingness to embrace due process and follow international standards and procedures or a vision in making the best use of the hardware and software to spearhead innovation in combining teaching and research for the benefit of students and the well-being of society. Such a mindset is called the soulware of higher education. Specifically, this book: Covers four key areas where a lack of proper soulware or mindset is deterring the advancement of higher education: internationalization; seamless integration of teaching and research; quality and evaluation; and creativity and innovation; The author’s arguments are factual and comments are critical on what is perceived to be less desirable or a failure in higher education; The book offers useful insights into the future and a global perspective on trends, challenges, and opportunities in higher education. Audience Educators, policymakers, higher education providers and administrators, global stakeholders of higher education including students and parents, and the general public in both the East and the West who have an interest in global higher education.

Taiwan at a Tipping Point assesses issues relating to Taiwan’s new political, economic, diplomatic and military/strategic state-of-affairs following the January 2016 national election that brought the then opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) to power. This was a momentous event. The DPP won major presidential and legislative victories giving it an easy mandate to govern. Tsai Ing-wen became president. But ruling did not turn out to be easy. Tsai and the DPP had little experience managing the economy and their growth strategies did not work well. Their stances on Taiwan’s independence alienated Taiwan’s biggest trading partner and a nation that claims Taiwan is its territory, China. Beijing took revenge. Taiwan’s only ally, the United States, was confused and distracted in trying to formulate a new policy toward Taiwan. Promises President Tsai and the DPP made during the campaign, especially on reform and Taiwan’s national status, were hard to fulfill and for the most part were not. Post-election euphoria turned into dismay. Thus the question arose whether the president and the DPP would remain in power or whether the next elections would see the Nationalist Party or Kuomintang (KMT) return—though it remaining in the doldrums made this seem unlikely. Thus uncertainty characterized Taiwan post-election. Taiwan was at a turning point.

This unique volume highlights Taiwan's ongoing efforts to mediate between competing political actors, a means to ensure domestic stability and national security without severely affecting its continuous economic growth and sovereign status in the international society. Taiwan's Politics in the 21st Century concentrates on three general areas: domestic politics, political economy, and external relations. Written by prominent scholars in the field, including John Hsieh, Shelley Rigger, Cal Clark, Alex Tan, Joseph Wong, T Y Wang, Quansheng Zhao, Guoli Liu, and Chyungly Lee. It also provides an overview of Taiwan's process of democratic consolidation, unravels dynamic interactions among various domestic and international actors in policy design and implementation, and explores future challenges to Taiwan thus leaving readers with a better understanding of the political complexity of Taiwan's attempts to strengthen its democratic governance and institutions.

What readers and reviewers say about The Universal Solvent: "I like your strong, sassy voice. Your writing voice is quick, take-no-prisoners, smart, informed." Audrey DeLaMartre, book reviewer, The Phoenix. "I am enjoying The Universal Solvent immenselyit is scary to contemplate the possibility of running out of water. Our son-in-law is a marine biologist and runs a wetland remediation business, so the topic is not new to us. . . I will certainly propose The Universal Solvent to our book club. . . you are such an accomplished author!" Mrs. T. M. Bowes, Carlisle PA "As a resident of what is said to be the driest State (South Australia) in the driest Continent, The Universal Solvent is, to me, both timely and thought-provoking. It gives a clear message concerning a serious environmental problem in a readable and entertaining style, which would be of interest to anyone concerned with water conservation and related issues." Trevor Scott, Curator of Fishes, South Australia Museum, Berkely CA, USA lecturer (ret.) "The Universal Solvent takes the reader on a leap of connected energy to face the imminent possibility of a shortage of fresh drinkable water: this effect has already begun to be evident. The plot shifts the reader at a breathtaking pace along various exciting locations with the main participants so real you sense their presence and character. Fully packed with emotion and intrigue. . .the best piece of work Ive read in the last sixty years." Sikung Lowe Head of National Qi Gong College [email protected] The plot is fiction. The problem is fact. The time is tomorrow. The problem is water: Its contaminated. Governments and think tanks strive to solve the water crisis, but too many unscrupulous politicians and crooks profit from this worldwide shortage of potable water to pursue viable solutions seriouslya fact Rusty Sinclair learns at personal cost. Using an alias, Rusty moves across America like an elusive underground streamhiding, surfacing, hiding. When he surfaces in Fort Trust, a town thats seen better times, he decides to work for a few weeks then shove off for the open road again. His plan changes. He spars with a woman co-worker who reminds him all too much of the guilt-stained past hes trying to elude, yet he must rely on her to help him dust off a retired scientists project that might be the key to solving the water crisison the other hand the project might only be a senile lunatics fantasy. Clete Shatz, owner of the company Rusty works at, and an acute judge of mortals weaknesses, draws Rusty into an embezzlement scheme to bilk American citizens of mega-millions of tax dollars in return for potable water. At the ethical crossroads, each man must make decisions that will not only put himself at risk, but change the lives of the people he loves and the lives of everyone who thirsts for water. For both Rusty and Clete, the easy path is not the best path. Lives hang in the balance either way. Using facts, statistics and predictions currently available from the U.S. Government and its agencies and from environmental groups, Fowlers The Universal Solvent takes readers on an entertaining ride that will change the way they think about humanitys most precious resource.

Confucianism, Chinese History and Society is a collection of essays authored by world renowned scholars on Chinese studies, including Professor Ho Peng Yoke (Needham Research Institute), Professor Leo Ou-fan Lee (Harvard University), Professor Philip Y S Leung (Chinese University of Hong Kong), Professor Liu Ts'un-Yan (Australian National University), Professor Tu Wei-Ming (Harvard University), Professor Wang Gungwu (National University of Singapore) and Professor Yue Daiyun (Peking University). The volume covers many important themes and topics in Chinese Studies, including the Confucian perspective on human rights, Nationalism and Confucianism, Confucianism and the development of Science in China, crisis and innovation in contemporary Chinese cultures, plurality of cultures in the context of globalization, and comparative study of the city cultures in modern China. These essays were originally delivered at the Professor Wu Teh Yao Memorial Lectures. Wu Teh Yao (1917-1994) was an educator, political scientist, specialist in Confucianism and original drafter of the United Nation's Universal Declaration of Human Rights.