Humanities and the Arts (CLB) courses
CLB9001
Masterpieces in Chinese Literature
中國文學名著選讀
Offering Unit: Department of Chinese
This course consists of lectures on the traditional as well as modern literary master works. The course aims at cultivating the interests of students in the study of Chinese literature and understanding how masterpieces and their writers express the problem of people and possible solutions, for example the sense of alienation. The skills of reading and writing of the major genres of Chinese literature will be introduced to students, sample work representing the characteristics of masterpieces from Pre-Qin (先秦) to twentieth- century are required readings.
CLB9002
Chinese-Language Literature in Global Contexts
全球語境下的中文文學
Offering Unit: Department of Chinese
This course introduces students to the study of the selected works of Chinese-language literature in global contexts.
CLB9003
Cross-cultural Studies of Children’s Fantasy Literature
Offering Unit: Department of Translation
This course introduces students to the rich and expanding area of children’s fantasy literature both in Chinese and English, engaging them in broader discussions about imagination, cultural exchange, and storytelling across societies. By surveying the key texts and movements that have shaped this literature genre, the course focuses on how fantasy narratives reflect and shape cultural values, identities, and worldviews. It also examines how fantasy stories across languages and cultures influence perceptions of self and others. Students will analyze the adaptation, translation, and reception of classic children’s fantasies in diverse cultural contexts. The course explores fantasy literature as a space for cross-cultural imagination, encouraging new perspectives on diversity, globalization, and the transformative power of storytelling.
Language of instruction: English / Chinese
CLB9004
Topics in World Literature: Literary Utopianism
世界文學專題：文學中的烏托邦思想
Offering Unit: Department of Chinese
This course explores a theme of timeless relevance—the visualization of an ideal society—via important texts in the literary and intellectual traditions of China, Europe and India. Attention will be paid to artistic features, cultural premises and historical contexts. The topical platform fosters cross-cultural comparisons, as ancient and modern texts offer longitudinal perspectives on cultural-intellectual orientations, literary expressions and antithetical (anti-utopian) views.
CLB9005
Evolution of Chinese Language
漢語通論
Offering Unit: Department of Chinese
The Chinese language has evolved over thousands of years, with the New Literature Movement in the early 20th century marking a significant period of transformation. Over the past century, Modern Standard Chinese, particularly its written form known as Modern Vernacular Chinese, has continued to evolve, influenced by various dialects and foreign languages, especially the Yue dialect prevalent in Hong Kong, as well as Japanese and English loanwords and grammar. This course offers an introduction to both classical and modern Chinese language, emphasizing the characteristics and evolution of Chinese characters, phonology, lexicon, and grammar, along with an exploration of the associated culture. The course aims to provide both generic knowledge and linguistic skills that are transferable for understanding and analyzing both Classical and Modern Standard Chinese alongside the Yue dialect.
CLB9006
Media Literacy
Offering Unit: Department of Cultural Studies
This course provides students with the opportunity to develop an overall understanding of the complexity of mass media messages and their meanings in our everyday lives. Media literacy concerns both production and consumption of messages — writing, reading, speaking, listening. Emphasis is thus on developing critical skills to “read” media messages, and to reflect on the media industries which are responsible for producing these messages. It is expected that students, after taking this course, will develop basic skills to critically analyze the process of media making from different perspectives, including gender, cultural, and ethical ones. Through discussion, reading, group projects, role playing and other work, students will be expected to make connections with their personal social and ethical responsibility towards the society, as they gain an understanding into the complex role of mass media in our culture’s development, and most importantly, our lives.
CLB9010
An Introduction to Chinese Kunqu and Peking Operas Appreciation
中國戲曲—京崑藝術欣賞
Offering Unit: Chinese Language Education and Assessment Centre
Chinese theatre has had a far-reaching influence on shaping Chinese language and culture. Among all 360 traditional Chinese operas and theatre performing arts, Kunqu Opera and Peking Opera have taken the leading positions in the domain. Kunqu Opera was awarded “non-material World Cultural Heritage in China” by UNESCO, and Peking Opera is the form which has become the national opera of China. This latter form has surpassed all other types since the 19th century. Influenced primarily by Kunqu Opera, Peking Opera has been able to integrate various kinds of Chinese opera and performing arts. This course introduces a basic knowledge of Kunqu Opera and Peking Opera. By introducing students to the rich history, cultural significance, and artistic elements of Chinese traditional opera, students will have the opportunity to discuss and present their selected topics of how Chinese opera reflects historical events, societal norms, diverse cultural contexts and real-world challenges. In addition, students will appreciate, analyse and practice basic singing in Peking Opera and Kunqu Opera, and explore the social responsibility of artists in promoting cultural understanding, tolerance, and inclusivity. Professionals will be also invited to deliver seminars and demonstrations of various styles of Opera Arts.
In addition to lectures, arrangements will be made to attend theater performances to appreciate Peking Opera and Kunqu Opera performances. Students will also be given opportunities to practice with performers. At the end of the Term, the students will be required to submit a paper to demonstrate what they have gained.
CLB9012
The Four Books and Chinese Intellectual Tradition
《四書》與中國士人傳統
Offering Unit: Department of Chinese
This course introduces students to the basic concepts of Confucian humanism contained in the four great Confucian texts—The Four Books—and examines the formation and transformation of Chinese intellectual tradition. It provides students with an in-depth study of selected passages from The Analects of Confucius (Lunyu), Mencius (Mengzi), The Great Learning (Daxue), as well as The Doctrine of the Mean (Zhongyong).
CLB9014
Food, Culture and Identity
Offering Unit: Department of Translation
Not only is food vital for survival, it is also a substance that is important to the construction of cultures and identities. Indeed, whether it is the sense of robust unpretentiousness that is often associated with the American hamburger or the meticulous attentiveness of the kaiseki ryori 懐石料理, there are undeniable similarities behind the process of associating one type of food to a particular nationality and the imagination/construction of that national identity. The study of the gastronomical practices of one group of people, thus, provides a unique and an effective means to gain introspective insights into the forming of various cultural traditions as well as to facilitate the understanding of the process of the formation of cultural identity.
By focusing on the various representations of food in both Chinese and Western cultures, in different mediums that include but are not limited to the literary and the visuals, this course challenges students to look beyond the idea of food as simply a nourishment and to consider the inherent relationship between food and cultural identity in both the Eastern and Western contexts and its translational importance as a means for facilitating cultural exchanges.
Language of instruction: English / Chinese
CLB9016
Understanding Museums
Offering Unit: Department of Digital Arts and Creative Industries
This course introduces students to the histories, functions and practices of museums. The focus of this course will be museums in the Western tradition, although examples in other cultural contexts will also be considered. It will examine the different ways of defining museums, followed by topics broadly divided into the following categories: histories, collections, display, audience and the museum profession. The course takes a critical approach to the study of museums. It will highlight past and current issues and the often contested roles that museums are expected to play in society.
CLB9017
Screening China: Understanding Chinese Culture and Society through Film
銀幕中國：電影中的中國文化與社會
Offering Unit: Department of Chinese
The course introduces students to different facets of Chinese culture and society and their changes across time through a representative selection from mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, overseas Chinese cinemas. The selected films are examined in their cultural, political and historical contexts with a particular emphasis on issues such as nationhood, identity, urbanization, gender, historical and social changes, and globalization.
CLB9018
Thinking Like an Anthropologist
Offering Unit: Department of Cultural Studies
This course aims at providing the students with a basic understanding of the diversity of human culture and society in the world. The pedagogical approach of this course is designed to teach the students with diverse academic or professional backgrounds to think like an anthropologist. The course is structured around a number of key questions, which are drawn mainly from cultural anthropology and are foundational for all branches of the humanities. By discussing these key questions, students will learn what it means to be human and its diverse possibilities. Other than rendering the strange familiar and the familiar strange, the course will help the students to develop insight into how the seemingly most practical and commonsensical aspects of any person’s life can be most broadly informed by the shifting cultural and social contexts of which they consider themselves a part.
CLB9019
Childhood, Youth and Culture
Offering Unit: Department of Cultural Studies
This course brings together key themes and issues in the area of childhood and youth studies by providing diverse theoretical perspectives on the study of children and youth across the disciplines in arts, humanities, and social sciences. It pays particular attention to the socio-historical contexts in which “children” and “youth” have been defined, accepted and challenged in history. The course also problematizes the major institutional sites, such as family, school and media, which are closely related to a person’s growth from birth to adolescence and adulthood. While focusing on the representation of children and youth in advertisement, television, film, arts and government policies, this course enables students to reflect upon their personal experiences, and to explore the agency of children and youth.
CLB9022
Music and World Cultures
Offering Unit: Wong Bing Lai Music and Performing Arts Unit
This course introduces students to the diversity and range of musical cultures in the selected areas of Europe, Africa, India, East Asia and Southeast Asia. Assuming no previous musical training, it will explore how the musics and musical instruments of different world cultures share common fundamental characteristics. At the same time, it will demonstrate the uniqueness of the music produced by any given culture. In examining both the commonalities and differences across different world musics, the course will also show how cultures apply music to an array of art forms (e.g. dance, theatre) and social contexts (e.g. religion, political intervention, globalisation). It will analyse the role of music in these combined art forms and explore how music can be applied to its social context with the contribution of students’ personal responsibility, and put into that specific social context, its social responsibility. Students will listen to and watch a range of musical recordings and performances, and critically evaluate these through discussion and writing and the reading of relevant scholarship. It will both deepen students’ appreciation of music itself and also enhance their understanding of the connections between music and other arenas of art and life.
CLB9025
Love and Sexuality
Offering Unit: Department of Philosophy
What is love? Should we love our family more than strangers? What is romantic love and how is it related to sexuality? This course discusses several approaches to love and sexuality from different traditions and times. Among the main issues discussed, are: what is the essence of love, how can it be best understood, are some people more deserving of love than others, how will future developments of technology and society might affect our understanding of love?
CLB9027
Topics in World Literature: Women in Traditional Societies
世界文學論題：傳統社會中的女性
Offering Unit: Department of Chinese
This course offers an introduction to philosophical, religious literary, and social conceptions of women through a comparative study of relevant texts and discourses in the Chinese and non-Chinese (mainly Western) traditions. Students will examine ideas and practices that are partly universal and partly time/culture-bound, with a critical inquiry into several modes of epistemology whereby woman was presented and produced in different societies and cultural contexts. Attention will be paid to fostering a broad-minded understanding of literary and cultural developments from their beginnings to the modern age. The course will be taught bilingually (i.e., in Chinese and English) in accordance with the language of the original/translated texts.
CLB9028
Ecology and Chinese Cinema
中國生態電影
Offering Unit: Department of Chinese
This course is a survey of Chinese ecocinema–films that manifest ecological concerns and address environmental issues in Chinese film history. Students will explore a wide range of cinematic representations of ecological problems in China, and investigate cultural implications of these problems. Attentions will be paid to developing humanistic understanding of environmental issues and reflecting on their cultural roots. Film screening will be scheduled outside class meetings.
CLB9029
Science Fiction in Literature and Visual Arts
Offering Unit: Department of Philosophy
This course is intended to introduce students to some of the “big questions” of the humanities, through the lens of science fiction in literature and visual arts. Such questions include “What does it mean to be human?”, “What is the relationship between humanity and technology?”, “What is reality and to what extent can reality be simulated or virtual?”, and “How do advances in technology change our social and moral responsibilities?” Although students will explore these questions by engaging with the works of contemporary and classic SF authors, the questions themselves are of practical interest. In our current digital age, technology is rapidly advancing, and it is more important than ever to be able to think clearly and critically about abstract issues regarding possible future technologies. For example, it is extremely likely that the capabilities of AIs will continue to improve, and as they do so, they will be capable of taking over an increasingly wide range of different forms of work. How will these developments affect different communities, which differ with respect to the kinds of work they perform and thus the degree to community members’ jobs will be changed by AI? And in light of these potential changes, what social and personal responsibilities do we have to ensure that AI is developed in a safe and equitable fashion? These are just a few examples of questions that are
- raised by classic and contemporary SF, and
- of real-world relevance to us in the foreseeable future.
The ability to think critically and creatively about these challenges is and will continue to be of great value. In addition to using SF to explore real-world challenges posed by future scientific advancements, the course will provide the students with a selection of starting points in this vast genre of SC, as well as providing the intellectual resources required to understand and appreciate these works.
CLB9032
Understanding Morality
Offering Unit: Department of Philosophy
This course invites the students to reflect on some of the most central questions in ethics: What is morally right and wrong? What is the morally good life? Is there a single moral theory or are morals specific to particular cultures, epochs or even individuals? Is the rightness or wrongness of an action determined exclusively by the foreseeable consequences that it has? Is pleasure the only moral good or does the notion of virtue have a role in determining morality? What is the role of emotions in the process of making a moral choice? The course discusses some of the answers to the previous questions that the contemporary major ethical theories offer.
Much attention will be paid to constructing a critical and rational approach to a wider understanding of human values. This will mean seeking both to understand other viewpoints sympathetically, but also subjecting them, and one’s own, to critical appraisal. As such, this course also tackles a range of specific moral problems including questions of cultural relativism, animal rights, euthanasia, and global poverty. The course will avoid technical terminology to the degree that avoiding it will not constitute a significant decrease in depth and understanding.
CLB9033
Introduction to Musics of the World and Sustainability
Offering Unit: Wong Bing Lai Music and Performing Arts Unit
“Sustainability” is often understood as management of finite resources for both present and future use, most commonly with regards to natural resources and often with an eye on possible economic benefits. The study of music and sustainability, however, allows students to reexamine the latter term’s in a deeper level: from the preservation and revitalisation of specific types of endangered music, to community-building and sustenance through music, and finally to the use of music in promoting the protection of the nature. Through studying the experiences of traditional musics around the world, students will engage critically in a range of topics where music and various notions of sustainability meets, such as cultural policy, cultural heritage management, community-building, tourism and economy, activism, conflict and peace-building, well-being, and environmentally-sustainable practices. Students will learn about practical application of these understanding in a final project related to music and sustainability in Hong Kong.
CLB9034
Music Across the Generations: Western Popular Music in the Post-World War II Period
Offering Unit: Wong Bing Lai Music and Performing Arts Unit
This course will investigate the intersection of music and social evolution in the post-World War II period, between approximately 1945 and 1980. Under the overarching umbrella of “The Development of a Youth Culture and Inter-Generational Dialogue”, it will be organized around three primary topics, focusing on core aspects of those processes:
- Race and the Civil Rights struggle;
- the Peace Movement (in particular, resistance to nuclear weapons and to the Vietnam war);
- the Sexual Revolution and gender issues.
For all of these topics, attention will be paid to both social/political developments and relevant musical expressions relating to them, in a variety of music genres but primarily rock ‘n’ roll. No prior musical knowledge or experience is expected.
CLB9035
Korean Pop Culture in a Global Context
Offering Unit: Department of Digital Arts and Creative Industries
Korean popular culture has recently gained critical attention in the global media marketplace. Particularly, Hallyu (the Korean Wave), a term coined in Asia describing the widespread popularity of Korean cultural products and its regional and trans-regional influences, has been prominently addressed by the scholars, the critics, and the fans altogether in many parts of Asia. Through readings, discussions, in-class screenings, and presentations, this introductory course aims to provide a comprehensive view of contemporary Korean culture, society, and politics through examining some of the most representative forms of popular culture.
CLB9036
Hong Kong Cinema: A Brief History
Offering Unit: Department of Digital Arts and Creative Industries
This course aims to provide an overview of the resonance and impact of Hong Kong cinema in local and global contexts. Films made in Hong Kong have over the past decades made their marks in world cinema and in the cultural memory of Hong Kong people. Hong Kong history and socio-cultural change constitute the local frame where we can study how films resonate with local audiences. International receptions of Hong Kong and the circulation of Hong Kong film style in Hollywood constitute the global frame where we can study Hong Kong cinema’s lasting influence. The course will organise around stylistic and genre analysis, directors, thematic reading, and review of selected literature on Hong Kong cinema, history, and society.
CLB9099 Special Topics in CLB Cluster
The subject matter of this course varies according to the expertise of the subject teachers or visiting scholars available. Special topics will mostly complement regular courses offered in the CLB cluster, to provide a broad range of general knowledge and wide perspectives for students to investigate, analyse and reflect on issues and topics related to Humanities and the Arts.