Seeking and Managing Wealth: Advice from a Guangdong Mother in Late Qing and Early Republican China

This article traces the life of Qu Fengzhu (1860–1927), a native of Panyu, Guangdong, with special focus on her Zhijia yaoyi (Basic principles of household management). Whereas many women from elite families in late imperial China emphasized the importance of their sons studying hard in order to secure a place in the government or to live with dignity, Qu Fengzhu focused on seeking and managing wealth properly to sustain the family finances. Living in the greater Canton area loaded with heavy commercial activities and East-West interaction opportunities, as well as witnessing the political and social transition from the imperial era to the republican era, Qu Fengzhu gave very pragmatic advice to her offspring without elaborating much on high-sounding truths and principles. She set four rules for her children to follow and emphasized the importance of diligence and frugality. In a flourishing commercial world, the relatively conservative arguments on wealth management contained in Zhijia yaoyi somehow incorporates moral education. This makes its author’s words carry weight and significance.     

Why Gross National Disposable Income Should Replace Gross National Income

Unilateral transfers, and notably remittances, are a growing source of income for developing countries. However, Gross National Income (GNI), which is widely used as an indicator for living standards, does not record them. Gross National Disposable Income (GNDI), by contrast, includes both income and unilateral transfers, thus providing a more exhaustive account of people's available income in an open economy. Yet, GNDI is rarely available in major reports and is sometimes confused with the GNI. This article calculates the GNDI for 27 countries amongst the world's top remittance receivers and demonstrates the usefulness of this measure for analysis and policy making in developing countries. The article also provides some critical insights into the role of income and unilateral transfers in the balance of payments.     

‘Ladies or gents’: Gender division in toilets

This article is part of a review symposium of Sheila Cavanagh's book Queering bathrooms: gender, sexuality and the hygienic imagination, 2010, Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 295 pp., £19.94 (paperback), ISBN 978-1-4426-10736     

Spatial and temporal dynamics of the urban heat island effect in a small Brazilian city

This study examined the spatial and temporal patterns of the canopy layer urban heat islands (UHI_UCL) in a small city in southeastern Brazil using the local climate zone (LCZ) system. We analysed the influence of weather conditions, LCZs characteristics, and local surface relief on the UHI_UCL magnitudes. Mobile traverses were used to measure air temperatures during representative nights of wet and dry seasons. Daily maximum magnitudes were observed in compact classes (LCZs 3 and 7) under ideal weather conditions (dry, clear skies, and calm) and higher anthropogenic heat release (weekdays). Seasonal effects on LCZ thermal differences were negligible. The peripheral landscapes were warmer than the city centre in both seasons. Among the warmer areas in the city, magnitudes in compact LCZs 3 and 7 were consistently higher than in LCZ 6. In general, representative sites of the main ‘built’ LCZs in the study area exhibit similar inter-zone temperature patterns to those reported for cities of different sizes from tropical and midlatitude regions. Thermal contrasts of ΔT_{LCZ 3 − D} in the study area reveal significant evidence that small cities can have as strong heat islands as bigger cities. These findings highlight the importance of the LCZ system to identify the main controlling factors driving such thermal differences and the need to extend the application of this approach in other South American cities to yield systematic data of UHI_UCL for urban planning given the coming challenges of climate change over the region.