Hong Kong

This course examines the history of Sino-Japanese relations from the mid-nineteenth century to the present day. It studies how political, economic, and cultural relations between the two countries have evolved through multiple stages of conflict and cooperation. It covers the following themes: economic development and modernization in East Asia; colonialism and imperialism; Japanese and Chinese nationalism; cross-cultural fertilizations within the Sinosphere; and the relation between war, memory, and national identity.

This course examines some of the most influential conceptualizations of happiness in the Western tradition. We will consider, in detail, the work of Aristotle (Nicomachean Ethics), J.S.Mill (Utlitarianism) and Freud (Civilisation and Its Discontents). This focus will allow us to explore a range of ideas about the nature of happiness and the possibility (or impossibility) of our achieving it. Particular emphasis will be placed on the ongoing influence of these conflicting ideas in our contemporary world.

This course examines the importance of GIS to building smart cities and the ways in which the technology can be integrated with other ICT in order to support different aspects in urban development. It covers an introduction to smart city and its components; geospatial open data and common spatial data infrastructure; enabling technologies for smart city; delivering smart cities through a geospatial strategy; GIS basics; working with ArcGIS online; using web GIS and geospatial cloud in smart city applications delivery; using 3D GIS in smart city planning and development; using mobile GIS in smart city data collection and public engagement; handling real-time geospatial data for smart city parameters monitoring; applying spatial analytics to solve spatial problems and predictive analysis in smart city planning.

This course examines the role of translation in social media communication. It contemplates how wide-ranging multilingual digital contents are circulated on social media via translation, how genres, user experiences, visual styles, business models and technologies harnessed by digital enterprises and platforms are impacting on legacy media and traditional means of mediated communication, and where the diverse user-generated content continue to innovate and transform social media communication.

This course examines the development of mass communication in different social and historical contexts. Emphasis will be placed on analyses of the roles, functions, and impact of some major mass media (such as print, broadcast, TV, film, advertising/public relations and new media) in various societies like Hong Kong, China and other parts of the world from a developmental perspective.