Hong Kong

This course examines the study of Chinese characters, with a focus on the nature of the writing system: its origin, structure and development. Issues that relate to the form, pronunciation and meaning of a graph will be examined. 

This course examines the history of the British Empire from the late eighteenth century to the end of the twentieth century. Topics include: the cultural and material foundations and the economic, political, and social consequences of empire; the relationship between metropole and periphery; collaboration and resistance; the dynamics of race, gender, and class; the relationship between empire and art; new national and local identities; decolonization, and independence; and the legacies of empire. 

This course examines brand management and looks at the following questions: Why are some brands more preferred by the customers? Do brands make organizations more competitive, gaining higher market share? Are favorable brands more profitable and sustainable than their counterparts? What are the meanings of brand to organizations and customers? How to develop and manage brands that benefit organizations while creating value for customers? What makes a brand successful and last longer? Why so many brands fail, even when they have managed to draw attentions in the market? What makes a good branding strategy?
 

This course examines the history of the Indian subcontinent from the 18th century to the present day. It begins by examining the twilight of the Mughal empire on the one hand, and the gradual expansion of European power across the region on the other. After looking at the ways in which the Portuguese and the Dutch established themselves around the Indian Ocean littoral at a time when territorial control was firmly in the hands of local rulers, it then examines how large parts of this region were incorporated into the British Empire in the 18th and 19th centuries. In the process it examines the pivotal political, economic and social transformations witnessed under colonial rule and examine its legacies. Using a focus on South Asia to probe and better comprehend the development and dissolution of colonialism, it will simultaneously probe forms of colonial control to identify the forces that have most profoundly shaped the region today.

This course examines ancient Chinese calligraphy before the Qin and Han dynasties. In addition to the training of writing skills, the knowledge of paleography will also be introduced. 

This course examines the prominent sources of labor precarity and how workers – across different institutional settings – respond to these threats. The course covers phenomena such as workplace technological change/automation, international trade, green transition, as well as their consequences, including growing inequality, the revival of the radical right, protectionism, and demand for redistributive policies.

This course examines the configuration of space, place, and identity in relation to languages, gender, and social class in Sinophone literature and culture. Engaging the issues of multiculturalism, linguistic plurality, narrative heteroglossia, and transnational im/mobility. This class probes the concept of the Sinophone and how it relates to, complicates, and challenges China and Chineseness. What is the Sinophone? How does it inform our readings of texts produced outside and on the margin of China and Chineseness? In challenging existing centers of power and hegemony, does the Sinophone form new centers? How does migration during different time periods and across different space shape the cultures of these Sinophone sites? Building on recent scholarship on Sinophone studies, this course draws on postcolonial and postmodern theories to examine a culturally and geographically diverse body of contemporary Sinophone fiction and film.

This course introduces a holistic approach to an exploration of normal patterns of development from infancy to old age. Social and familial conditions affecting growth at different stages in the life-cycle will be studied, together with related problems of adaptation and adjustment.

This course examines philosophical issues about food and its relation to ethics, objectivity, and values. Topics include moral issues such as the debate about animal rights, world hunger, the use of genetic engineering in agriculture, and the justification of health policies about food and drugs. It also looks at the relationship between food and art, and the objectivity of taste. 

This course examines the history of the Graeco-Roman world during the first millennium BCE: from the Greek Early Iron Age to the rise of the Roman Empire. The main topics include material culture, the Greek city-states, the Persian Wars, Greek politics and theater, Athenian imperialism, ancient daily life, mythology and religion, Alexander the Great, the Hellenistic kingdoms, and the Roman Republic and Empire (about 70/30% Greece/Rome). While the focus is on Greece and Rome, attention will also be paid to their interaction with neighboring cultures such as Persia and Anatolia, as well as to the reception of the Classical world up until today.