Chinese University of Hong Kong

This course examines the philosophical thought of Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism. As a cornerstone of Chinese culture, Confucianism contributes to the establishment of the human moral way by articulating a conception of humans as moral subjects. Taoism stresses the pursuit of an ideal life by understanding the changes of the universe, while Buddhism applies the concept of karma to show how the ultimate cause of human suffering lies in ignorance. Other Chinese philosophical thought such as Mohism, Legalism, and the School of Yin and Yang may also be covered.

This taster course focuses on helping students engage in basic daily social interaction using Cantonese.

This course examines the structure and function of human body at a molecular level. Major topics include the understanding of protein structure and its important role as enzymes, structure-function relationship of biomolecules, cell metabolism and energy production, and the basics of cellular biochemistry. 

This taster course is for international students who are interested in studying Putonghua. Students will be systematically introduced to Chinese characters (formation, history, stroke orders, etc.). Additionally, students will have a chance to learn some basic daily conversations in Putonghua.

This course is an upper intermediate listening and speaking course in Putonghua, focusing on students’ fluency in speaking and appropriateness in usage. In addition to daily situations and semi-formal situations, students will also be introduced to various aspects of Chinese culture and society. 

This course examines sensory and perceptual processes, with an emphasis on psychophysical and scaling methods and experimental techniques. Contents include: psychophysics and scaling, sensory systems, perceptual development, constancies and illusions, and attention.

This course examines major religious traditions in the world from a phenomenological and historical point of view. Topics include Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Daoism and local religions. 

This course examines contemporary Korean popular culture, and more specifically the 21st century South Korean cultural phenomenon called Hallyu (Korean wave) – its promises and limitations as well as its popularity and backlash against it. By taking an interdisciplinary approach to the topic, we will study food, film, television, music, fashion and sports and ask how they participate in the transnational production, distribution and circulation of culture, identity, modernity, tradition, ideology and politics both regionally and globally. One of the major questions this course will explore is the curious ways in which these popular media continuously re-stage and re-define Korea’s historical past in order to comment on its present. 

This course enables students to acquire some basics of Hong Kong Sign Language and the general principles for communicating with deaf people in a visual-gestural modality. With different videoed scenarios, students are systematically guided to acquire elementary signing skills for fulfilling basic communication needs in everyday situations. Emphasis will be placed on a range of simple, general-purpose expressions, which allow students to converse with local deaf people, as well as prepare themselves for learning the language further.

This course examines the "auteur" or "author" theory by focusing on several directors each time the course is offered. Each term the selection of directors will ensure a mix of past and present, as well as American, European and Asian filmmakers.