China

Anti-Asian discrimination on the rise in Canada, U of T researchers find

Christopher.Sorensen — Thu, 25 Mar 2021 15:59:25 +0000

Anti-Asian discrimination on the rise in Canada, U of T researchers find

Christopher.Sorensen Thu, 03/25/2021 - 11:59

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Reports of discriminatory experiences by Asian Canadians more than tripled over the past year, up from 11 per cent in April 2020 to more than 35 per cent in early 2021, according to preliminary data (photo by Jason Redmond/AFP via Getty Images)

Blake Eligh

Topic

Breaking Research

Anti-Asian Racism

Coronavirus

China

Dalla Lana School of Public Health

Research & Innovation

U of T Mississauga

Anti-Asian discrimination is on the rise in Canada, with reports of discriminatory incidents more than tripling over the last year.

That’s according to the preliminary results of a two-year study co-led by social demographer Weiguo Zhang, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Toronto Mississauga. The research team also includes Xiaolin Wei, an associate professor at U of T’s Dalla Lana School of Public Health, Peizhong Peter Wang, a professor at Dalla Lana and Memorial University, and Lixia Yang, a professor at Ryerson University.

The study notes that the Canadian Chinese community was already taking precautions by February of 2020, when Canada had just eight confirmed cases of COVID-19. That includes avoiding restaurants and cultural gatherings such as Lunar New Year, wearing face masks and self-isolating after returning home from trips abroad.

“At that time, the Chinese community was taking action to isolate themselves and provide mutual help to each other,” Zhang says.

The study, which aims to assess the prevalence of racial discrimination against Chinese immigrants and the likelihood of experiencing discrimination across social groups, launched in April 2020 with an online survey of 700 Chinese respondents living in Canada.

About 11 per cent of respondents to the April survey indicated that they had experienced incidents of discrimination since the start of the pandemic. Respondents to the April survey also reported feeling higher levels of anxiety, depression and fear since the pandemic began – data that will help the researchers better understand the relationship between racial discrimination and psychological distress in the context of COVID-19.

By contrast, preliminary results from a second survey conducted in early 2021 revealed a sharp rise in discriminatory experiences, with more than 35 per cent of respondents indicating they had experienced an incident of discrimination.

Qualitative interviews with 60 respondents, conducted in the summer of 2020, revealed differing attitudes about what constituted discrimination that was split along age demographics. Younger and middle-aged respondents (aged 18 to 25 and 25 to 64, respectively) were more likely to identify incidents as discriminatory, while seniors (aged 65 and up) were reluctant to use that label.

Zhang notes one experience recounted by an older interviewee who visited a big-box store early in the pandemic and was asked to remove a mask. The interviewee didn’t view the incident as discriminatory, but Zhang notes that they might not have been asked to remove the mask if they weren’t Asian.

Zhang, who opted to wear a mask himself during the early days of the pandemic, recalls visiting a medical clinic where he was bumped to the front of the line. He says he wonders now if it was because people felt uneasy when they spotted an Asian person wearing a mask. “Sometimes, it’s difficult to judge what is discrimination,” he says.

Older respondents also used different words to describe their experiences, referring to “unfriendly gestures” when describing discrimination.

Zhang notes that older community members may be less likely to experience discrimination because they are not working or going out of the house during lockdowns. They may also cope with discrimination by ignoring it or trying to avoid situations where they might experience trouble. In contrast, the middle-aged demographic was more likely to suggest finding solidarity with other racial groups experiencing discrimination.

“We think that some people are trying to mitigate the impact by playing down the discrimination, so they don’t get hurt as much, or avoid thinking about it,” Zhang says. “Sometimes they say: ‘If you see discrimination everywhere, you will be troubled all the time.’”

Zhang says he was surprised to find that self-reported experiences of discrimination crossed all socio-economic demographics within the Canadian Chinese community.

“People with high income or low income, people who speak English or don’t speak English, people who come earlier or new arrivals – there’s no difference,” Zhang says. “Nobody is protected by money, gender, disability or language abilities. It’s not because of status – it’s because of our appearance and racial background.

“The Chinese community has disproportionately experienced discrimination because of where the COVID-19 virus originated from,” Zhang says. “We are trying to understand the impact of discrimination on well-being, and how we can help as individuals and community members.”

Zhang says it could be that the racism was simply better hidden before the pandemic, which brought racist attitudes to the surface.

“In normal years, discrimination is less apparent, but never totally gone. It is a continuous and never-ending work for all of us to work together to end it,” he says.

“Chinese people have experienced historical systemic discrimination. Being aware of it, and how to fight it is important.”

The researchers saw a unique opportunity to study the experiences of Canada’s Chinese community since the Greater Toronto Area is home to one of the largest Chinese communities in the world outside of China. With a grant from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the researchers launched a two-year study of a group they feared would “bear the brunt” of the virus’s social impact.

With international partner, U of T launches research centre focused on robotics and elder care

Christopher.Sorensen — Thu, 04 Jun 2020 16:38:55 +0000

With international partner, U of T launches research centre focused on robotics and elder care

Christopher.Sorensen Thu, 06/04/2020 - 12:38

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Alex Mihailidis, U of T's associate vice-president, international partnerships, says the partnership with China's Huazhong University of Science and Technology will speed up development of new technologies (photo by Nick Iwanyshyn)

Liz Do

Topic

Global Lens

China

Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

Faculty of Medicine

Global

Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering

Occupational Therapy

Robotics

Seniors

The University of Toronto’s Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering and the AGE-WELL Network of Centres of Excellence has partnered with the Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST) in China to launch a centre dedicated to researching and commercializing robotics for elder care. The centre will be virtually housed within the U of T Robotics Institute.

“We’re really excited to form this international partnership, which will allow us to speed up the development of better technologies and make an impact from both sides of the world,” says Professor Alex Mihailidis, associate vice-president, international partnerships, at U of T and a leading researcher in intelligent health systems for older adults.

Mihailidis is leading efforts alongside Professor Yan Fu at HUST. The joint centre has already gained an industry partner, robotics company UBTECH, which will provide support on various research projects, as well as commercialization.

“Both HUST and U of T are leaders in robotics research, so the marriage of the two promises to produce outstanding results,” says Fu. “With an increasingly aging population in China, and fewer younger family members to take care of them, robotics is going to play a vital role down the road.”

By 2030, Canadians over the age of 65 will make up 23 per cent of the population. And in China, seniors will make up 28 per cent of the population by 2040. Though these are future scenarios, the health-care challenges around aging populations can be felt today. One instance is the recent dispatch released by the Canadian military on living and working conditions of residents and health workers at long-term care homes in Ontario.

“This revelation underscores the kinds of critical gaps we see in elder care,” says Mihailidis, who envisions the centre helping to address these gaps by leveraging and catalyzing research already taking place at the two partner institutions.

Developed in Mihailidis’ lab, ‘Ed,’ the robot, helps guide seniors with dementia through everyday tasks (photo courtesy of the Intelligent Assistive Technology and Systems Lab)

At U of T Engineering, robotics research in elder care is led by faculty such as Mihailidis, whose team develops smart-home robotics for older adults, and Professor Goldie Nejat, who designs socially assistive robots that cognitively stimulate and promote social interaction in long-term care homes.

“We can take these projects, put them on the UBTECH robotic platform, work with our counterparts in China to do the same thing, test robots in our respective countries, and work towards making commercially viable products,” Mihailidis says.

Over the next year, Mihailidis hopes to expand the centre’s research cohort. And, once travelling restrictions are lifted due to the COVID-19 pandemic, he sees vast opportunities for student and faculty research exchanges.

“The possibility to work with HUST and with UBTECH – we have the opportunity to see some real-world impact,” says Mihailidis. “And if this partnership model is successful, it presents a novel approach for collaboration going forward at the university.”

'We're learning more every day': How U of T is leading efforts to understand – and respond to – COVID-19

Christopher.Sorensen — Tue, 10 Mar 2020 23:25:17 +0000

'We're learning more every day': How U of T is leading efforts to understand – and respond to – COVID-19

Christopher.Sorensen Tue, 03/10/2020 - 19:25

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From tracking its spread to developing new diagnostic tools and educating the public, U of T experts have been on the front lines of the battle to understand and ultimately respond to COVID-19 and the novel coronavirus behind it.

Topic

Dalla Lana School of Public Health

Disease

Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work

Faculty of Medicine

Faculty of Arts & Science

Global

Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology

Political Science

Research & Innovation

Startups

Sunnybrook Hospital

U of T Scarborough

University Health Network

As the world watches the spread of the COVID-19 virus, researchers from the University of Toronto are at the forefront of monitoring, predicting, and managing the disease – from creating mathematical models that help predict its spread to working on rapid diagnostics and potential treatments.

They are also providing critical advice to world leaders – and the rest of us via numerous appearances on TV, radio and online news sources – on the best ways to respond to an outbreak that has so far sickened more than 114,000 on every continent except Antarctica and is responsible for more than 4,000 deaths.

While Canada has so far escaped the worst of the growing health crisis, with just 65 confirmed cases, Isaac Bogoch (left), a specialist in epidemiology and infectious diseases, says it’s only a matter of time before the novel coronavirus makes its presence felt here in a much larger way.

“In Canada, we're certainly not immune to this, and we will very likely see more and more imported cases into Canada as we see more cases throughout the world,” says Bogoch, who is an associate professor of medicine in the Faculty of Medicine and a clinician investigator at the Toronto General Hospital Research Institute, part of the University Health Network (UHN).

Understanding the virus and tracking its spread

In addition to making regular appearances in the media to help inform and educate a nervous public, Bogoch is one of a number of U of T researchers who is tracking the disease using official reports and computer models in an attempt to predict how bad the outbreak is likely to get. In January, he was first author on a study in the Journal of Travel Medicine that predicted the likely spread of the disease based on analyzing flights originating in or passing through Wuhan, China, which would later emerge as the epicentre of the outbreak, but at the time had only a few confirmed cases. The paper correctly predicted that the disease would soon spread to Bangkok, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Taipei.

BlueDot Health, founded by the Dalla Lana School of Public Health’s Kamran Khan, alerted its clients to the outbreak of an infectious illness in China about one week earlier than the World Health Organization (photo by TK)

Bogoch's co-authors on the paper included Kamran Khan, an associate professor at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health. Khan is the founder of a company called BlueDot that uses data analytics to track and predict infectious disease risk – essentially an automated global surveillance system that can peer into the future. The power of the technology was underscored when the company alerted its clients to the unusual outbreak of illness in China about a week before the World Health Organization alerted the world to the emergence of the novel coronavirus.

On Feb. 5, epidemiologists Ashleigh Tuite and David Fisman (both at left), both of the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, published a paper in the Annals of Internal Medicine that looked at data on the spread of the disease and concluded that it must have originated in November, a month earlier than previously thought. They also published an online model that allows researchers to test different assumptions about the novel coronavirus such as how infectious it is and how well control efforts are working.

“Modelling allows us to move from data to understanding,” says Fisman, who has also been a fixture on TV, radio and online publications in recent weeks. “You can easily do interventions or experiments on the population on your computer. And that can give you ideas, for example, about how you might slow this epidemic – what might be the impact of flattening the epidemic curve, for instance, so the epidemic is less fierce at any given point of time, but lasts longer?”

More recently, Bogoch, Khan, Fisman and Tuite wrote a paper to predict the size of the COVID-19 outbreak in Iran. At the time they wrote the paper, Iran had confirmed only 43 cases of the disease. But three international cases had also been traced back to Iran. Based on that number and an analysis of travel patterns, they calculated that Iran likely had 18,300 active cases. Since then, Iran has identified thousands of confirmed cases.

Despite successes like these, Bogoch points out that a lot is still unknown about the disease. For instance, although the mortality rate is reported at two to three per cent, the rate could go down as we discover that more people than we thought had mild cases of the disease and recovered without anyone knowing.

It's also difficult to say how widespread the disease will eventually become, or how it will compare in severity to other diseases such as SARS or the seasonal flu.

“I think we have to be careful and humble in our approach to this infection. We're learning more and more every day, and we don't have all the answers,” he says.

New tools to combat COVID-19

Robert Kozak and Samira Mubareka, both in U of T’s department of laboratory medicine and pathobiology and at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, are working on new tools to help hospitals diagnose the virus more quickly (photo by Nick Iwanyshyn)

Beyond understanding the spread of COVID-19, there are several U of T researchers who are racing to develop new tools for physicians to combat the virus both here in Canada and around the world.

Samira Mubareka and her colleague Robert Kozak, both in U of T’s department of laboratory medicine and pathobiology in the Faculty of Medicine and at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, are using the latest in whole-genome sequencing technology to help hospitals characterize the virus more quickly. The research also promises to help track the virus’s evolution and spread.

“If the virus’s genome was a book, we’re going to figure out its entire story,” Kozak told U of T News in late February.

At the same time, a U of T startup company that was co-founded by former PhD student Ali Punjani played a key role in helping researchers create the first 3D, atomic scale map of the part of the virus that attaches to and infects human cells – a key step toward developing a vaccine that some described as a “critical breakthrough.”

There will likely be more discoveries to come. Late last week, the federal government announced it was investing $27 million in coronavirus-related research, nearly $6 million of which is going to U of T and affiliated institutions.

Getting our act together

Ross Upshur, a researcher and bioethicist, says some of the responses to COVID-19 from governments have been questionable (photo courtesy of Dalla Lana School of Public Health)

Ross Upshur is a researcher and bioethicist with the Dalla Lana School of Public Health. He is especially interested in the ethics of responses to infectious disease outbreaks, and is chairing a World Health Organization working group on the topic.

Upshur says that the ethics of responses to emergencies like COVID-19 have been laid out in a number of recommendations and enjoy a general consensus. But he says that, with each new outbreak, there’s a tendency for governments tend to forget lessons of the past.

“Most outbreaks start out interesting, then they become weird, then they become weirder, but structurally the same sorts of issues arise again and again and again. That's the thing I find fascinating. When are we going to get our act together on this?”

Even though there are well-established ethical guidelines about the best ways to respond to disease outbreaks, Upshur says that governments never seem to remember those lessons from one outbreak to another.

For instance, measures to control the outbreak have been more restrictive than usual, and look more like security responses than public health measures. And Upshur thinks at least some of the measures are questionable. For instance, Japan quarantined 3,711 passengers and crew on the Diamond Princess cruise ship, and 705 eventually became sick. Upshur says an alternative would have been to send everyone home with thermometers and to check in with them daily. Such a measure was effective in dealing with a similar incident during an Ebola outbreak, he says.

Zoonotic disease

An assistant professor in the Faculty of Medicine, Kerry Bowman points to the widespread trade of wild animals as a contributor to a number of diseases, including SARS, Ebola, and now COVID-19 (photo by Jacklyn Atlas)

Kerry Bowman is an assistant professor of medicine and a bioethicist with an interest in the effects of environmental degradation and wild animal consumption on the spread of disease. Several years ago, he visited the market in Wuhan that is the epicentre of the disease and saw first-hand the wild animals for sale there.

He counted 56 species of animals for sale, wild and domestic, crowded together in stacked cages. Not only were the animals suffering, but the conditions were perfect for the spread of disease, he says.

Bowman acknowledged that there are cultural sensitivities around consumption of wild animals, and that it occurs in many countries, including eating of deer and other game animals in Canada. But he says the widespread trade of wild animals has contributed to a number of diseases, including SARS, Ebola, and now COVID-19. In each case, the disease seems to have originated in a wild animal being used for food.

“Unless we collectively begin to deal with the commodification of wildlife and the consumption of wildlife we are not going to get on top of this,” he says.

Politics and xenophobia

An associate professor of political science, Lynette Ong says China's government didn't respond well during the outbreak’s early days (photo by Riley Stewart)

Lynette Ong has been watching the effect of the outbreak on the Chinese government and its relationship with its citizens and other countries. The associate professor of political science says that China's centralized, authoritarian government did not initially respond well in the course of the outbreak.

“Because of the authoritarian nature of the political system, people are afraid to report bad news, even if it's the truth. People try to avoid responsibility,” she says. On the other hand, once the government is convinced there is a problem, it does have the ability to take strong measures.

She also thinks the outbreak has made Chinese citizens more interested in holding their government accountable. “This is an awakening moment in China for people as they become aware that information is controlled tightly. People are realizing that the information being controlled can affect them,” she says.

Almost as soon as people became aware of the outbreak in China, xenophobic and racist comments began circulating in Canada and elsewhere. Carmen Logie (left), an associate professor in the U of T's Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work, told U of T News that fear of infection during disease outbreaks can amplify existing prejudices and intensify discriminatory behaviours

That was particulary the case during the initial days of the COVID-19 outbreak, when it was largely confined to Asia, and Chinese-Canadians were being unfairly targeted.

“We need a multi-pronged approach,” Logie says in the interview. “Yes, we need the information, but we also need to share how this is connected to our biases towards, say, Chinese people in Canada, as well as the negative impacts it's currently having on communities."

Bowman, who worked as a doctor during the SARS outbreak, says that racism was a factor then, too, and it is important to address it quickly.

"An outbreak is not just a biological event,” he says. “It's a political and sociological event as well, and an economic one. And sometimes the economic and social and political can be as powerful or even more destructive than the physical threat, and ‘us against them’ is something that sets in very quickly under this kind of pressure.”

Although he says he has seen racism emerge in similar ways to the SARS outbreak, he thinks that there was more and quicker pushback against it in the media and elsewhere. He also thinks that as the virus spreads to more countries, it will no longer be associated in people's minds solely with China.

Lessons from SARS?

Passengers on the deck of the Diamond Princess cruise ship, which recorded 705 infections and raised serious questions about Japan’s decision to quarantine thousands of people aboard the vessel (photo by Kyodo News via Getty Images)

Canada, not surprisingly, has tended to look at the COVID-19 outbreak through the lens of the 2003 SARS epidemic. But Bogoch points out that they are actually very different diseases. SARS tended to cause severe illness, and had a death rate of around 10 per cent. Coronavirus, on the other hand, usually comes with milder symptoms and a lower rate of death.

Nevertheless, the experience of SARS seems to have taught Canada important lessons that will help it control COVID-19.

“Our systems are so much more robust than they were in the time of SARS, just in terms of the coordination and communication between the various levels of public health and clinical medicine,” he says. “And the infection prevention and control initiatives in hospitals are much more robust now than they were.”

Upshur isn't so sure. He acknowledges that Canada has invested a great deal in public health since SARS, including creating the Public Health Agency of Canada and the position of chief public health officer. On the other hand, the Government of Ontario has proposed cutting funding for public health service.

“Public health is always the first to go because you don't notice it when it's working,” he says. “But woe on you when you start to mess with it. Because you pay the price every time.”

In the meantime, U of T experts will continue to be on the front lines of the current outbreak. That includes experts like Seema Yasmin, a former epidemic intelligence officer at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and global journalism fellow at U of T’s Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, who has been a frequent commentator on U.S. media like CNN and Wired magazine.

It also includes Abdu Sharkawy, an assistant professor in the Faculty of Medicine and infectious disease specialist at Toronto Western Hospital, part of UHN, who recently penned a viral Facebook post that, if nothing else, is helping to keep the wall-to-wall coverage of the COVID-19 crisis in perspective.

Sharkawy argued that while the illness does indeed pose a danger, the panic surrounding it could ultimately do more damage. His prescription? “Facts not fear. Clean hands. Open hearts. Our children will thank us for it.”

Chinese and Canadian university students have a great deal to learn from one another: U of T’s Joseph Wong

Romi Levine — Mon, 22 Jul 2019 17:54:01 +0000

Chinese and Canadian university students have a great deal to learn from one another: U of T’s Joseph Wong

Romi Levine Mon, 07/22/2019 - 13:54

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Joseph Wong is U of T's vice-provost and associate vice-president, international student experience, and a political science professor (photo by Johnny Guatto)

Topic

Global Lens

Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy

China

Faculty of Arts & Science

Global

Despite diplomatic tensions between Canada and China, university students in both countries are finding common ground, writes Joseph Wong, the University of Toronto's vice-provost and associate vice-president, international student experience, in The Hill Times.

Wong, who is a political science professor and the Ralph and Roz Halbert Professor of Innovation at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, wrote about his recent trip to China where he taught a course along with faculty members from Fudan University in Shanghai.

The course – involving U of T and Fudan students – exposed students to different perspectives on global challenges like climate change and migration.

“Students who are globally minded are more likely to learn the diplomatic skills necessary to address disputes between nations,” said Wong. “Continuing to engage China reiterates Canada’s enduring friendship with our Chinese counterparts.

“We look to deepen, not stunt, inter-cultural learning so that we gain a better understanding of one another. Universities are training and preparing future global leaders, after all.”

Read Wong's article in The Hill Times

Citizen Lab research outlines how WeChat uses high-tech algorithms to censor images: South China Morning Post

rahul.kalvapalle — Tue, 16 Jul 2019 16:33:47 +0000

Citizen Lab research outlines how WeChat uses high-tech algorithms to censor images: South China Morning Post

rahul.kalvapalle Tue, 07/16/2019 - 12:33

Cutline

(photo by Rafael Henrique/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Topic

Global Lens

Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy

China

Citizen Lab

Global

Research & Innovation

Technology

Research from the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab outlines how Chinese social media app WeChat is using cutting-edge technology to censor images shared by its over 1.1 billion users.

An analysis by Citizen Lab says that WeChat uses special data signatures to detect and delete banned images in real time, the South China Morning Post reported. Images that aren't instantly censored are analyzed retroactively and compared to previously censored images, with the system then flagging content that may be deemed harmful by Chinese authorities.

That means WeChat – unbeknownst to its users – is effectively using image-sharing activity on its platform to strengthen its censorship technology, the researchers said.

"Users using the platform are building the [blacklist's] database by sending images," Jeffrey Knockel, a co-author of the study and post-doctoral researcher at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, told the South China Morning Post.

The most censored images were found to be those pertaining to Chinese government matters and major news events such as the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and 2018 U.S. midterm elections, according to business news website Quartz.

For these U of T researchers, mobile cinemas in China are a lens on society

geoff.vendeville — Wed, 10 Jul 2019 20:28:37 +0000

For these U of T researchers, mobile cinemas in China are a lens on society

geoff.vendeville Wed, 07/10/2019 - 16:28

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U of T's Tong Lam and Thomas Lahusen travelled to China to document mobile cinemas through photography and by interviewing spectators (photo courtesy of Tong Lam)

Blake Eligh

Topic

Global Lens

Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy

China

Faculty of Arts & Science

History

Humanities

Research & Innovation

U of T Mississauga

Mobile cinemas appeared in China in the 1950s as a means for the government to educate people and spread communist messages to the countryside. The roving cinemas ran until the late ‘80s, but their popularity waned as TV became widely accessible.

But audiences have started to flock to the mobile cinemas again recently, says University of Toronto historian Tong Lam.

“We noticed that in contemporary China the mobile cinema is actually making a comeback,” says Lam, an associate professor in U of T Mississauga's department of historical studies and director of the Global Taiwan Studies Program at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy.

Lam worked with Tina Chen, a historian at the University of Manitoba, and Thomas Lahusen, a professor in U of T’s department of history, to document modern mobile cinemas in photographs, interviews and film. They travelled to China’s southwestern province of Sichuan to embed themselves with projection teams and talk to audiences.

“From the images, you can see that we are documenting a very diverse nation,” Lam says. “There are different demographics – ages, classes and groups of people – watching these films.”

Lam's planning a photo-essay book based on the project, and recently displayed photos of mobile cinemas in China at the Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival.

Mobile cinemas, which sprang up in China in the 1950s as a way of educating people in the countryside and spreading communist messages, are making a comeback in contemporary China, according to historian Tong Lam and his research partners (photo courtesy of Tong Lam)

In the early years of China’s mobile cinemas, screenings drew thousands of people from surrounding areas.

“In the early days, rural people might not have had electricity and wouldn’t have experienced a loudspeaker and lights at night,” Lam says. “The films were propaganda, but they were also entertainment and a way to erase the difference between the city and the country.”

Today, there are between 40,000 and 50,000 active mobile project teams in China, Lam says. “The old technology has been replaced. Now, it’s digital downloads or satellite. On any single evening, there will be hundreds and hundreds of cinemas across the country in cities and villages in different landscapes, with different groups of people and so many different films.”

The mobile cinema isn’t the only screen around anymore. Lam says that, increasingly, the cinemas must compete with illuminated billboards and cellphones. Even still, the outdoor cinemas continue to draw crowds who come for many reasons. “Just like watching baseball isn’t always about watching baseball, the cinemas are about catching up with friends or drinking in a public space,” Lam says. “We see people watching, chatting and using their cell phones. They don’t really pay attention.”

While watching habits have changed, so has the content of the films.

“Thirty years ago, audiences would have watched propaganda films about the founding of the People’s Republic of China and about celebrating the revolution,” Lam says. “The new wave reflects current Chinese development, which is creating urban disparity, unevenness and social discontent. The new government propaganda is more about asking people to be patriotic and not make trouble. It’s about creating a unifying message that everyone is one, regardless of where they are.”

The mobile cinema can be seen as a window into socioeconomic disparity in China and the global media landscape, Lam adds.

“LED screens might show state propaganda and commercials, and it’s not clear where it ends. It all becomes the same thing – the Communist Party and luxury cars and jewelry.”

Funding for the project is provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and the University of Toronto.

U of T study finds long-term success in reducing unnecessary antibiotics prescriptions in China

noreen.rasbach — Tue, 12 Feb 2019 19:47:55 +0000

U of T study finds long-term success in reducing unnecessary antibiotics prescriptions in China

noreen.rasbach Tue, 02/12/2019 - 14:47

Cutline

Xiaolin Wei is an associate professor of health systems and clinical public health and the Dalla Lana Chair in Global Health Policy

Nicole Bodnar

Topic

Breaking Research

China

Dalla Lana School of Public Health

Global

Research & Innovation

Subheadline

Primary care physicians in China have reduced unnecessary antibiotic prescriptions for children with upper respiratory tract infections by one-third – an important step to combat antimicrobial resistance globally, according to a new study by University of Toronto researchers.

“No one has done this type of clinical public health intervention in a developing country, but in a relatively short time we’ve changed doctors’ knowledge and attitudes towards antibiotic prescribing, and seen the benefits sustained 12 months after trial activities stopped,” said Xiaolin Wei, associate professor of health systems and clinical public health and Dalla Lana Chair in Global Health Policy at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health.

In China and many countries, including Canada, antibiotics are often prescribed inappropriately to patients with upper respiratory tract infections, including common colds, sore throats or ear aches, most of which are viral infections that don’t require antibiotics. The situation is often much worse in developing countries, particularly for children. Inappropriate antibiotic prescribing increases antimicrobial resistance, which makes infections and illnesses more difficult to treat and strains the health-care system.

The study, Long-term outcomes of an educational intervention to reduce antibiotic prescribing for childhood upper respiratory tract infections in rural China, published recently in PLoS Medicine, was led by Wei, Qiang Sun, from Shandong University, China, Mei Lin from the Guangxi Centre for Disease Prevention and Control and Joseph Hicks and John Walley from the University of Leeds in the United Kingdom. The research team trained hundreds of rural doctors using clinical guidelines for appropriate prescription of antibiotics, helped these doctors review their own and their colleagues’ prescribing practices on a monthly basis, and provided a brief education on how to explain antibiotic prescribing to their patients and caregivers during consultation.

“This study showed the power of connecting public health and clinical care at the point of service delivery,” said Professor Ross Upshur, a co-author on the study and Dalla Lana Chair in Clinical Public Health.

A randomized trial of the intervention was previously conducted in 25 primary care facilities across two counties in rural China. In the new study, followup data was obtained from 14 of those facilities one year after the trial’s conclusion. In intervention facilities, the antibiotic prescription rate for children aged two to 14 years with upper respiratory tract infections and no illness requiring antibiotics remained 29 per cent lower one year after the intervention ended. The economical intervention cost three cents per percentage of reduction and less than $400 per health-care facility.

“Participating physicians told us the trial helped build their confidence to push back on patient requests,” said Wei, who is also the vice-president of the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease, an organization that deals with the multi-resistant tuberculosis in antimicrobial resistance, and an international pioneer in advancing implementation science in developing countries.

Wei explained how the dynamic contextual factors in China led to different levels of adaptation among the primary care facilities. For example, in China physicians have a relatively short consultation time with their patients (less than five minutes per patient), so the research team had to ensure the physician education part of the intervention was concise and directly relevant.

In-depth interviews with physicians revealed that key factors to maintaining antibiotic prescription reductions included improved knowledge and communication skills and focused prescription review meetings. Compared to facilities with lower uptake, high performing facilities had strong peer review systems led by respected physician champions who identified high prescribers and provided them with specific feedback on how to improve their prescription practices.

This paper is one in a series of studies carefully guided by an implementation science framework for complex interventions. A process evaluation and cost-effective analysis were designed along with the trial.

The study is one of many interventions led by Wei to take action against antimicrobial resistance and change global clinical policy. Wei is also collaborating with international policy leaders, including the National Centre for Disease Control and Guangzhou Medical University, to develop treatment guidelines for acute respiratory infections in all populations, with an aim to revise the national guidelines in China and other developing countries facing similar challenges.

U of T's Tiff Macklem on the urgent need for Canada to diversify its trade

noreen.rasbach — Wed, 14 Nov 2018 16:26:22 +0000

U of T's Tiff Macklem on the urgent need for Canada to diversify its trade

noreen.rasbach Wed, 11/14/2018 - 11:26

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Cargo containers from Asia are seen in the port of Vancouver in 2015. Tiff Macklem argues that Canada needs to diversify its trade beyond the U.S. and increase our links to rapidly growing emerging market economies (photo by Shutterstock)

Topic

Rotman School of Management

The Conversation

Trade

United States

With the difficult renegotiation of the trade agreement with Canada’s largest trading partner now resolved, it’s time for Canada to get serious about trade diversification.

The experience of renegotiating NAFTA – or USMCA as it is now called – has highlighted Canada’s vulnerability to one dominant trading partner that buys roughly 75 per cent of our exports.

As a country, we should not be in this position. We need to diversify our trade beyond the United States and increase our links to rapidly growing emerging market economies, particularly in Asia, despite the “anti-China” clause in the USMCA.

Given that growth has pivoted to these emerging markets in the last 15 years, the first question is why has this not happened already. The answer is straightforward.

For a long time, being right beside the United States – the biggest, richest market in the world – has been a great ride for Canada. What’s more, we’re very comfortable and good at doing business with Americans.

Fewer benefits of living next to U.S.

So why diversify? The short answer is being right next door to the United States is not the ride it used to be. Part of this is the alarmingly protectionist sentiment of U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration, but the root of the answer pre-dates Trump.

In the last 15 to 20 years, the United States has not been the engine of global growth that it was in the past. The U.S. share of global growth has been almost cut in half in the last two decades, falling from about 32 per cent in the 1990s to about 17 per cent in this decade. Over the same period, Asia’s share has risen from 32 per cent to just over 50 per cent, according to our analysis of World Bank trade data from the Institute for Competitiveness & Prosperity. This has created a double challenge for Canada.

First, we are significantly underexposed to emerging market economies, so we are getting little upside from their acceleration in growth.

Too engaged with sluggish economies

In addition to the 75 per cent of our trade that goes to the U.S., another 10 per cent goes to other slow-growth advanced economies, largely in Europe. Only about nine per cent of our trade is with faster-growing emerging economies like China, India, South Korea, Mexico and Brazil.

This is much lower than our peers. In Germany, the share of exports to emerging markets and other developing countries is in the 20s; for Japan and the U.S., it’s in the 30s; and in Australia, it’s in the 40s.

Containers wait to be unloaded onto a container ship berthed at the Australian port of Melbourne. Australia does enormous trade with emerging markets, far more than Canada (photo by Shutterstock)

Second, these rapidly growing economies are providing increasingly fierce competition for our products in the U.S. market. In 2000, Canada was the leading source of American imports. Today, China has the largest share of U.S. imports at 22 per cent, up from only eight per cent in 2000. In the same period, Canada’s share has declined from just over 18 per cent to about 13 per cent.

We should have developed a diversification strategy a decade ago. But without a crisis, there has been little imperative. Call it lack of vision, risk-taking or leadership.

Asian markets seen as risky

Emerging markets and Asian markets, in particular, are often seen as distant and less familiar. They are seen as risky and more expensive to penetrate. The consequences have been stark.

In the last 15 years, Canada’s share of the world export market has slipped from about 4.5 per cent to about two per cent. Part of this trend was inevitable as large emerging market economies joined the global trade and investment network, but Canada’s slide has been particularly precipitous.

Across the world’s Top 20 exporting countries, Canada’s performance since 2000 has been the second worst – only Japan has seen a bigger decline in its trade share than Canada.

Canada is losing share in the U.S. market that itself is losing share globally. We should instead be focused on gaining share in markets that are gaining share. This means diversifying our trade towards emerging market economies, particularly in Asia.

The place to start is with Asia’s two biggest economies, India and China. The new USMCA contains provisions that allow signatories to pull out of the deal if one country pursues a separate free-trade agreement with a “nonmarket country” – namely, China. But that should not be a barrier to this pivot.

India is a thriving democracy with strong ties to Canada. And as highlighted in a recent report on trade diversification from the Public Policy Forum, there is much that can be done with China short of a comprehensive free-trade agreement through sectoral agreements that offer “the best means for realizing quick and significant gains.”

Instead of waiting for a crisis, let’s make trade diversification the priority it should have been for at least the last decade.

Tiff Macklem is the dean of the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management and a professor of finance.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article, including Macklem's disclosure statement.

Lessons in Chinese history as America shuts off from the world: U of T expert

Christopher.Sorensen — Fri, 06 Jul 2018 04:00:00 +0000

Lessons in Chinese history as America shuts off from the world: U of T expert Christopher.Sorensen Fri, 07/06/2018 - 00:00

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There are parallels in Chinese history to U.S. President Donald Trump’s isolationism (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

Topic

Rotman School of Management

The Conversation

Trade

Those who have studied history understand the importance of being engaged in the global economy.

Two thousand years ago, China represented nearly 25 per cent of the global economy. In 1600, it was 30 per cent, and a third in 1820. The country was a global powerhouse, to say the least.

There is a famous story from 1792 when King George III’s ambassador led a trade mission to China with a cargo of the latest European technologies to present to the Chinese emperor – telescopes, globes, barometers, lenses, clocks, carriages, and other such things.

Historians report the Chinese emperor said: “There is nothing we lack – we have never set much store on strange or ingenious objects, nor do we want any more of your country’s manufactures,” thus reflecting his insular view.

A complicated set of factors, including weak Chinese leadership, internal conflict and a rejection of Western technology led to China turning inward and missing out on the Industrial Revolution. This left China significantly weakened, and subject to invasion and Western humiliation.

China down and out for more than a century

China’s demise in the 1800s lasted for more than 100 years. It was not until the 1978 Chinese Communist Party reforms under Deng Xiaoping that China re-emerged, allowing it access to Western markets and technology, thus providing economic growth and prosperity for the Chinese people.

Today, on a PPP (purchasing power parity) basis, China is the largest economy in the world – as it was 200 years ago.

People monitor stock prices in Beijing in June 2018. China is back as a global economic powerhouse after an insular era spent in the shadows (AP Photo/Andy Wong)

Interestingly, China’s growth was driven by exports in industries that saw the most significant liberalization. Going forward, China’s growth will likely slow as it will need to increasingly compete in industries in which there is much more protection.

This experience provides clear lessons for the United States.

The U.S. has been the world’s largest economy for the past 150 years. As journalist and author Fareed Zakaria noted in his 2008 book The Post-American World and the Rise of the Rest, it’s now a post-American era, where the U.S. is not falling, but other countries are closing the gap.

But Zakaria’s book was published before the rise of Trump and the insular and protectionist sentiment sweeping America.

Trump rejects access to global economy

The first tangible action of the Trump administration that pushed the U.S. towards an isolationist stance was his rejection of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade agreement that would give the U.S. access to an enormous share of the global economy.

Donald Trump would be wise to heed the lessons of Chinese history as he shuts off the United States from the rest of the world (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

Trump has also ordered a renegotiation of NAFTA, and has imposed tariffs on steel and aluminum imports into the U.S., prompting swift retaliatory action from the Europeans and Canadians. And now there is a very real possibility of a further round of tariffs. An all-out trade war seems increasingly likely, with dangerous economic and political ramifications for the United States and the world economy.

Also, and remarkably amid tensions with North Korea, Trump has also forced more protectionist dimensions into the U.S.’s free-trade agreement with South Korea.

Trump’s views that such agreements allow the rest of the world to benefit at the expense of the U.S. is so very wrong – these are not zero sum agreements. His moves to limit immigration are another dimension in his insular and protectionist vision for the U.S.

Reminiscent of China

Closing the U.S. off to the rest of the world is reminiscent of China more than 200 years ago. Of course, the circumstances are very different and it’s a different age. Nevertheless, leading economies of the world must be fully engaged in the global economy, both economically and politically.

It’s time for Trump and his supporters to understand that it is inconsistent to be a global power and protectionist.

The United States must remain open to trade, investment, immigration and the free flow of ideas. It must remain fully engaged in international institutions such as the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank – being a superpower is about both hard and soft power.

There is a clear contradiction between “make America great again” and closing off from the world. If the U.S. closes itself to the world, its future as a world leader in every way is at significant risk.

Walid Hejazi is an associate professor of international business at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management.

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

Thinking of studying abroad in China? New scholarship will help U of T students cover costs

ullahnor — Wed, 28 Mar 2018 14:47:29 +0000

Thinking of studying abroad in China? New scholarship will help U of T students cover costs

ullahnor Wed, 03/28/2018 - 10:47

Cutline

Visitors at the Great Wall of China (photo by Melissa on Unsplash)

Noreen Ahmed-Ullah

Topic

Global Lens

Centre for International Experience

Undergraduate Students

A new scholarship offered by the Chinese consulate general will make it affordable for 15 University of Toronto students who wish to study abroad or conduct research in China.

China is one of the most popular destinations for U of T students seeking international learning experiences. Through an agreement signed between U of T and the Chinese consulate, exchange students will get a subsidy of about $600 per month for living expenses and accommodation as part of the Chinese Government Scholarships.

Master’s and doctoral students will receive slightly more for their monthly stipend and accommodation as part of the scholarship.

Students in the exchange program will continue to pay U of T tuition and incidental fees. For those who choose to travel independently of U of T's international exchange program, the scholarship will also cover the tuition for the Chinese university if it is required.

“We know that one of the main constraints for many students as it relates to student mobility or learning abroad are the financial constraints,” said Joseph Wong, associate vice-president and vice-provost, international student experience. “One of the things we’re committed to is to ensure maximum accessibility for all students to be able to engage in these opportunities. With a scholarship such as this, we can mitigate those constraints.”

Securing the scholarship is part of U of T’s efforts to increase the global experience of its undergraduate students. Currently 19 per cent of undergrads at U of T take part in an international learning opportunity prior to graduation, with China being the most popular destination for student exchange programs.

“It’s incumbent upon us as the university to ensure that our students have these kinds of international experiences,” Wong said. “We’re one of best in the world in terms of our research. We’re one of the best universities in the world in terms of the skills and knowledge that we teach here. What we really want is to be recognized as one of the best in the world in providing these kinds of global experiences.”

Starting in the fall, the scholarship offers 15 undergraduate and graduate students across the three campuses funding to support learning abroad in mainland China. The scholarship covers students who are not citizens of China, and it isn’t language-specific, meaning students can use the funds to study in any discipline. They can spend time working in China as part of an academic placement, or they can pursue a research opportunity.

The scholarship also does not come with time restrictions – it could be for a shorter stay abroad like a semester, rather than for an entire year.

Students travelling during the next school year need to apply by 9 a.m on April 2 with the Centre for International Experience.

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Fewer benefits of living next to U.S.

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U of T study finds long-term success in reducing unnecessary antibiotics prescriptions in China