University of Hong Kong

This course introduces students to the study of the relationship between language and society. The course includes topics like language variation and change, language and gender, multilingualism and language contact, and language policy. Aspects like the distinction between language and dialect are covered next to how language attitudes shape our communicative behavior and the way we perceive speakers. The course has both theoretical and empirical content and includes many case studies and practical exercises from languages and regions around the world. This course is recommended for linguistics majors and is an important asset for anyone who seeks to understand how language affects how we relate to each other in society. Prerequisite: LING1000.

This course studies art and architecture created in East Asia during the seminal period when Buddhism was introduced to China and then transmitted to Korea and Japan. Focusing on the period c.300-c.1500, it examines selected key sites and significant works in all three countries. Students become familiar with important figures in the Buddhist pantheon; the iconography, gestures, and postures associated with Buddhas, bodhisattvas, and other deities; and popular narratives and architectural features associated with early Buddhist practice. These visual and iconographic features are studied in their historical, political, economic, and social contexts.

The course introduces a range of key issues, concepts, principles and methods in environmental management. The major components, processes, and attributes to environmental management are also covered. The roles of civil society, market mechanism and government regulations in environmental management are examined. Real-life examples from Hong Kong, China, and overseas countries are discussed to illustrate how integrated approaches should be applied for identifying optimal options in environmental management decision-making processes. 

This course provides an introduction to Chinese linguistics through an analysis of Chinese language facts. The origin, characteristics, operation rules and mechanisms of Chinese are thoroughly introduced so that students’ understanding of Chinese linguistics are raised from the perceptual cognition to the rational cognition. By completing the course, students utilize the research skills and methods to analyze some Chinese facts by obtaining a profound understanding of Chinese linguistics.

This course introduces population issues, concepts, theories and methods by encompassing the entire field of demography, including principle and practice. It offers an overview of various aspects of demographic growth and transition relating to changes in health and mortality, fertility, migration, age structure, urbanization, family and household structure. This course examines the relations between population and development and their potential consequences from a sociological, economic and geographical perspective. Other topics include global variation in population size and growth, various demographic perspectives and their modern implications, environmental impacts, and population policy. Special emphasis is placed on demographic transition in Hong Kong and its neighborhood region.

This course examines how attitudes toward death and the management of the dead transformed during the 19th and 20th centuries. It explores the effects of scientific and medical developments, secularization, imperial expansion, nationalism, and urbanization on how societies understood death and treated the dead. Through comparative case studies from Asia, Europe, and Latin America, the course considers whether death has become increasingly invisible in the modern age and whether the dead continue to hold sacred or social power. Emphasis is placed on analyzing historical sources to uncover past emotions, attitudes, and cultural norms surrounding death.

This course examines the burgeoning development of contemporary Chinese art in relation to its shifting socio-political and cultural realities since the end of the Cultural Revolution. Structured around a series of thematic studies on major exhibitions and artworks made and displayed at different stages, this course addresses issues relating to art criticism, institutional censorship, public engagement and art market, investigating unprecedented transnational flows and cross-cultural exchanges within the increasingly interconnected, yet unevenly developed contemporary art world. This course draws particular attention to the practices of Chinese women artists, including Shen Yuan, Lin Tianmiao, Yin Xiuzhen, Lu Qing, Xing Danwen, Kan Xuan, Cao Fei and others, interrogating and challenging the unacknowledged, unquestioned and marginalized status of women in the mainstream discourses of Chinese avant-garde art. Prerequisite: One 1000-level Art History course.

This course introduces complete beginners to the fundamentals of the Thai language, developing listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills with an emphasis on spoken communication. Vocabulary and grammar are presented through practical, communicative contexts such as introductions, giving directions, shopping, and telephone conversations. The course also provides an introduction to Thai culture and society to support effective and culturally appropriate language use. Non-permissible combination: THAI1003.

This course provides an overview of graphics hardware, basic drawing algorithms, 2-D transformations, windowing and clipping, interactive input devices, curves and surfaces, 3-D transformations and viewing, hidden-surface and hidden-line removal, shading and color models, modelling, illumination models, image synthesis, computer animation. 

This course introduces the fundamental accounting principles and processes involved in mergers and acquisitions (M&A). It focuses on how financial information is used to evaluate potential acquisition targets and the subsequent accounting required after a merger. The course emphasizes practical applications of accounting data, helping students understand its role in strategic decision-making within the M&A context. Key topics include financial statement analysis, basic valuation methods, and an overview of the due diligence process. The course also touches on the legal aspects that influence accounting practices in M&A transactions.