Hong Kong

Financial crises are common and occur quite frequently in market economies. What is a financial crisis and what are its possible causes? Can it be anticipated and hence prevented? What government policies can be implemented to alleviate its impact? This course explores financial crises to understand the conceptual underpinnings of the issues that lie at the heart of it. The course focuses on how the financial crisis in 2008 began, how it developed, how the different countries dealt with it with their own politico-economic means and measures, what are the effects on people, and what is its implication for the global economy, and its broader ramifications for our society.

This course introduces selective Western and Chinese literary novels, and provides a forum for extended practice in the art of creative writing. It is designed for students who have little or no previous experience writing literary texts in a particular genre. Introductory workshops cover a variety of technical and imaginative concerns through exercises, readings, and discussions. In addition to weekly reading literary classics, this course focuses on writing literary novels in Chinese or cross the boundaries of the genre.

This course introduces the anthropological study of food and eating and focuses on the social implications and cultural meanings of food and health. It considers how food ways are manifested in our behavior and social relations. Topics include: the origin and diffusion of food and food ways in relation to ecology, plants, social change, globalization, status and social relations, ethnicity and cultural identity, beliefs and symbolism, health and illness, politics, ethics, and such current issues as insecticides, mad cow disease, and bird flu. Assessment: participation (20%), midterm exam (30%), field trip report (30%), final exam (20%).

This course provides comprehensive training in reading, listening, speaking and writing in Japanese at the elementary level with an emphasis on elementary grammar. Language lessons are conducted in four languages: Japanese, English, Cantonese and Mandarin. Teachers use various kinds of conversational practices based on natural conversation emphasizing the use of the language in context. It focuses on sentence pattern practice and basic grammar, oral drills, simple compositions, dictation, translation, and reading. This course starts from the writing system and basic pronunciation.

This course covers the various forms, classification, assessment, causes and management of mental disorders including mental illness and mental deficiency. Emphasis is on the psychosocial impacts of mental disorders on individuals and families; and the roles of social worker in psychiatric rehabilitation and mental health services.

This course introduces key terminologies and concepts, and describes key considerations in transportation engineering. The course uses the application of mathematical and statistical skills to derive or obtain key results in transportation engineering. The course teaches how to identify, formulate and solve transportation engineering problems and design the geometry of highways with the considerations of safety and physical constraints. The course analyzes transportation engineering problems, transportation survey data, and transportation model results. Assessment: written exam (80%), and in-course assignment (20%).

This course provides an advanced understanding of contemporary China under globalization. This course provides a comprehensive analysis of the market transition of Chinese economy and China's increasing role in the world economy after 1978. It covers topics included, but not limited to, China's strategies in promoting internationalization; China and Global Economic Governance; challenges and possibilities of China's internationalization strategies.

Geography matters now more than ever because we are living in a globalized world. This course introduces the human geographic matters pertinent to cultural development and socio-economic and political changes. Important subjects to be discussed include the geographic dynamics of human culture, urban development, people's livelihood, geopolitics and new world order, and economic restructuring across the globe. Emphasis is placed on the nexus between economic globalization and local development as well as regional disparity in our global village.