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Ritual (li) is central to Confucian ethics and political philosophy. Robert Neville believes that Chinese Philosophy has an important role to play in our times by bringing ritual theory to the analysis of global moral and political issues. In a recent work, Neville maintains that ritual 'needs a contemporary metaphysical expression if its importance is to be seen.' This paper examines Neville's claim through a detailed study of the 'ethics of ritual' in one of the early Confucian texts, the Xunzi. This text has sometimes been read as offering a form of naturalism in its discussions of 'heaven (tian)' as analogous to Western, even modern, concept of 'nature,' while other interpreters insist that tian is a normative notion. Does this concept of tian offer a metaphysical ground for ethics of ritual advocated in the text? If so, what kind of metaphysics is it? Does Confucian ritual ethics need any metaphysical grounding? There is no specific metaphysical theory in the Xunzi and passages which could be referring to or implying metaphysical assumptions are open to hermeneutical debates. Even if metaphysical assumptions are necessary or beneficial to an ethics of ritual, the paper argues that the 'metaphysical flexibility' of the text could work to its advantage in remaining relevant in contemporary context. The conclusion explores some possible directions for further exploring the metaphysics of ritual in a modern understanding of Xunzi.

We explore the scientific potential of virtual worlds for experimental economics in terms of the subject pools and experimental platforms they present. Our results offer tentative, qualified support for virtual world experimentation. Overall, the be- haviour of virtual subjects recruited, incentivised and observed within Second Life across a range of five standard experimental games was not found to differ significantly from established standard results. In addition, we identify certain methodological opportunities and challenges which confront virtual world experimenters.

ABSTRACTWe test experimentally whether decisions in 2 × 2 games with mixed equilibria depend on the co‐player being nature or a human agent. Controlling for social preferences, we find differences in decisions in the chicken game and battle of the sexes but not for stag hunt and matching pennies. We attribute these to subjects' perception of the other's intentionality and disapproval avoidance in particular.

With the 9/11 event as the baseline, America's awareness of the strategic importance of Central Asia and the latter's weight in the U.S. global strategy was greatly changed. According to Charles Manes, the 9/11 terrorist attack enabled the U.S. to "discover Central Asia." This attack has straightened out the uncertainty due to confusion within the U.S. Government about the importance of the Central Asian area to the U.S. and enabled the U.S. to suddenly realize the important advantage of the five Central Asian nations in the global geopolitical pattern. However, the sympathy of the Central Asian nations, Russia and China for the U.S. on the terrorist attack and the warm help from the Central Asian nations to U.S.'s Taliban attacks in Afghanistan and to the U.S. military actions against al-Qa'eda, facilitated the U.S. army in Central Asia to gain the Manas Air Base and the Karshi Khanabad Airport (also called K2 Base). This symbolized a turning point for the U.S. to access the Central Asian area in one stroke. By stationing in Central Asia, the U.S. became a remarkably important power in Central Asia and nearby. In terms of strategy, the U.S. is very far away from Central Asia. However, judging from the undergoing Afghanistan Action of Antiterrorism and the U.S. military bases in Central Asia, the five Central Asian nations have actually fallen into the U.S. "New Frontier" category. This was the first time for the U.S. to observe and influence the Central Asian situation so closely. Surprisingly, the happening of the Kyrgyz "Tulip Revolution" in March 2005 and the Uzbekistan Andijan event in May of the same year interrupted the accelerating the U.S. influence in Central Asia. Although the U.S. kept its Manas Air Base in the end, Kyrgyzstan failed to observe the Kyrgyzstan-American Goodwill Policy after the "Tulip Revolution" and it vacillated on the U.S. stationing issue, which remained a headache to the U.S. The development of the Andijan event further led the U.S. to realize the complexity of the Central Asian situation. After the Andijan event, the U.S. Government required the Karimov Government to allow the international commission of inquiry to stand firm on the independence, which forced the U.S. army to withdraw from the Karshi Khanabad Airport on 21 November, 2005. The withdrawal of the U.S. army from Uzbekistan symbolized a great setback of the Central Asian policy, which is regarded as a "Strategic Surprise" for the U.S. in Central Asia. In order to turn the decreasing U.S. influence around in Central Asia, the U.S. Government has been adjusting its Central Asian policy ever since the second half of 2005. The aim of this paper is to outline the profound background of the above-mentioned adjustment by means of a comprehensive analysis of the challenges faced by the U.S. in Central Asia ever since 2005 and the causes of these challenges. At the same time, we will take the scholastic controversy over the priority of the U.S.'s Central Asian strategic goals after the Andijan event for example to point out the existing internal controversy over U.S.'s Central Asian strategy. As such controversy results from the above-mentioned strategic challenges against the U.S. in Central Asia and reflects a scholastically serious thinking on its Central Asian strategy, a deep study of such controversy is closely linked with a study of the strategic challenges against the U.S. in the Central Asian area. It begins with a comprehensive analysis of the internal and external challenges against the U.S. in Central Asia, and then shifts to the vision of the internal controversy over U.S. Central Asian strategy and summarizes the present situation and the future development of U.S. Central Asian strategy.

To penetrate and maintain peaceful development of the Central Asian region is a consistent goal of the United States for its international interests. With the 9/11 event as the baseline, since 2001 America's awareness of the strategic importance of Central Asia and the latter's weight in U.S. global strategy has been greatly changed. According to Charles Manes, the 9/11 terrorist attack enabled the U.S. to "discover Central Asia. As a result of this discovery the United States effectively gained a foothold in Central Asia. However, the U.S. has been so impatient that it made a policy mistake. In supporting the Color Revolution in order to change the political system in Central Asian countries, it promoted democratization in the region in too great a rush. Facts have proved that the Color Revolution model is not suitable for this area. The U.S. interference in Central Asia has caused some suspicion in Central Asian countries which in turn has affected relations between the United States and Central Asian countries. Due to their suspicion of aggressive U.S. actions in this region, Central Asian countries have reported a steady development in their cooperation with Russia and China. The operation of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) has been very impressive and successful. It set a strong force to challenge the U.S. strategy in the region; for instance, on 5 July, 2005, the SCO issued a declaration calling for the United States, though not explicitly, to set a timeline for withdrawing its military forces from Karshi-Khanabad Air Base, located in southern Uzbekistan. In terms of strategy, the U.S. is very far away from Central Asia. However, judging from the ongoing antiterrorist activities in Afghanistan and given the U.S. military bases in Central Asia, the five Central Asian nations have actually fallen into the U.S. "New Frontier" category. This is the first time the U.S. has observed and influenced the Central Asian situation so directly. Surprisingly, the happening of the Kyrgyz Tulip Revolution in March 2005 and the Uzbekistan Andijan Event in May of the same year interrupted the accelerating U.S. influence in Central Asia. Although the U.S. kept its Manas Air Base in the end, Kyrgyzstan failed to observe the Kyrgyzstan-American Goodwill Policy after the Tulip Revolution, and it vacillated on the U.S. stationing issue, which has remained a headache to the U.S.The development of the Andijan Event further led the U.S. to realize the complexity of the Central Asian situation. After the Andijan Event, the U.S. Government required the Karimov Government to allow the international commission of inquiry to stand firm on its independence, which forced the U.S. army to withdraw from the Karshi-Khanabad Airport on 21 November, 2005. The withdrawal of the U.S. army from Uzbekistan symbolized a great setback of its Central Asian Policy, and is regarded as a "Strategic Surprise" for the U.S. in Central Asia. In order to retard declining U.S. influence in Central Asia, the U.S. Government has been adjusting its Central Asian Policy ever since the second half of 2005. The aim of this paper is to outline the background of the above-mentioned adjustment by means of a comprehensive analysis of the internal controversy on the priority of U.S. Central Asian strategic goals after the Andijan Event. As such great controversy results from the above-mentioned strategic challenges against the U.S. in Central Asia, and because this controversy requires serious scholastic thinking on the part of the U.S. concerning its Central Asian strategy, it is necessary to combine a deep study of this controversy with a study of the Great Central Asia strategy (an extended Central Asian strategy) and its significant strategic points.

Through an in-depth exploration of knowledge of Chinese green food culture and industry, this paper attempts to offer insight into the functions, standardizations, and humanity management in contemporary China's time-honored catering enterprises. It employs a vertical and horizontal study methodology to demonstrate the panoramic history and perceptional present. The study finds out that the popular way to enhance functions, standardizations, and humanity management in Chinese catering enterprises is to spread the knowledge of Chinese green food culture and industry so that Chinese cuisine could better associate past, present, and future, as well as self and others, addressing the predicament of food, culture, industry, and its sustainability. Food cultural knowledge can broaden the visions of humanity management studies and enlighten scholars vertically and horizontally. Integrating food culture and humanity management will boost the spread of Chinese green food culture and redound to Chinese catering enterprises' functions, standardizations, and humanity management. The knowledge of Chinese green food culture and industry demonstrates its inheritance situation among some China Time-Honored restaurants, standardization production of food and its life-nourishing function in the catering industry studies on one hand. This paper is a tentative exploration to expound the understanding of Chinese green food culture and industry and its contribution to catering enterprises in humanity management studies, such as product design, staff management, and entrepreneurship in the Chinese context.

The International Journal of Business Anthropology (IJBA) is a double-blinded peer reviewed journal focusing upon business anthropology. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, general business anthropology theories and methods; management; marketing; consumer behaviour; product design and development; knowledge management and competitive intelligence; human resources management; and international business. Practitioners, students, community members, and faculty from all disciplines are encouraged to submit articles. IJBA was originally published by the North American Business Press (NABP) biannually, and is currently published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing, beginning with this volume