TKU professor Horng-Jinh Chang and PhD candidate Wang-Kuo Yan (both from the Department of Management Sciences) recently received recognition for their jointly written thesis entitled "When Backpacker Meets Religions Pilgrim House: Interpretation of Oriental Folk Beliefs". Not only was the thesis listed in the well-known international journal, the Arts and Humanities Citation Index (A&HCI), it also received the only "Excellent Thesis Award" conferred by the A&HCI in 2012.

Professor Chang explained that the thesis integrates culture and geography with management science to create a unique perspective on oriental folk beliefs. The study has been met with enthusiasm by numerous overseas publications, including a British journal, which has requested the right to publish it in their periodical.

Professor Chang added that the success of the thesis can be attributed in part to the precise and high-quality translation work that was carried out to render the thesis into English.