University of Hong Kong

Zen (禪) is a significant element in the cultural backbone of Japan. In this course, attention is focused upon the impact of Zen thought and practice on Japanese culture. The course begins with the introduction of proto-Zen from India to China, followed by the transmission and development of Zen in Japan. The aesthetic impacts of Zen practices are an important component of this course. Zen’s influence on the aesthetics of everyday objects, experience, and judgments are examined through examples in architecture, landscaping, arts, literature, spirituality, and lifestyle. From this course, students gain a basic understanding of Zen Buddhism and the impact it has had upon the everyday thought and culture of the Japanese people

This course studies how trade and financial linkages with the rest of the world affect the performance of an open economy’s macroeconomic variables, such as interest rates, exchange rate, GDP, the price level. The main topics include balance of payments, foreign exchange market, international linkages of interest rates and price level, exchange rate models, international monetary systems, and exchange rate crises. Prerequisites: ECON1210: Introductory Microeconomics, and ECON1220: Introductory Macroeconomics

This course covers sports and their impact on Chinese society with special focus on the role of sports in China's search for national identity and internationalization. It provides an in-depth understanding of Chinese society, popular culture, and politics. Students learn how the Chinese have interacted with different peoples from the rest of the world in international games such as the Olympics and the Football World Cup. The course helps examine how different peoples, nations, and governments have responded to sports, how the Chinese turned sports into vehicles for both nationalism and internationalism, how Chinese governments in different stages and periods have linked sports to their political legitimacy, and how sports serve as tools for nation building, expressions of national identity and national honor or personal freedom in China. By examining the role of sports in Chinese society, students gain valuable contextual understanding to better explain culture and politics and better understand China, its society, and its positions in the world.

This course focuses on the philosophical issues which arise when the nature of aesthetic appreciation and judgement is considered. These are some of the questions which are discussed in the course: What is mimesis? Does art simply mirror nature? Is beauty merely “in the eye of the beholder”? What differences might there be between aesthetic appreciation of art and aesthetic appreciation of nature? What is the relation between art and society? What is the difference between the sublime and the beautiful? These and other questions are explored through the work of philosophers such as Plato, Aristotle, Hume, Kant, Dewey, Heidegger Foucault and Lyotard.

This course examines the main business areas of a modern full-service bank, including how banks generate profit across different activities, the principal risks they face, the methods used to manage those risks, and the ways in which the public can assess bank risk, evaluate performance, and understand the regulatory framework governing banking operations. The course focuses on (1) the financial statement analysis of banks and bank-like financial institutions, and (2) the accounting and disclosure rules for the financial instruments they hold, including interest rate risk disclosures, loan loss disclosures, fair value accounting for financial instruments, securitization accounting, derivatives and hedge accounting, and market risk disclosures. Analyzing these two aspects of a modern bank reveals much about the strategies followed by the bank given the various regulations under which it operates. The financial statements of financial institutions are increasingly based on fair value accounting and their financial reports include increasingly extensive risk and estimation sensitivity disclosures. Both fair value accounting and risk and estimation sensitivity disclosures are necessary ingredients for financial reports to convey financial institutions’ risk and performance in today’s world of complex, structured, value and risk-partitioning financial instruments and transactions. While financial institutions often report imperfect (or worse) fair value measurements and risk and estimation sensitivity disclosures, careful joint analysis of the information they do provide invariably yields important clues about their risks and performance.

This course examines the food experiences and practices and their ideological effects that shape diners and their city. It shows how in every gulp, we are allowing a bit of the external world, in the form of food, to gain access to our bodily, cultural and social existence and change us in ways we do not always know. The feelings, emotions and memory we involuntarily but actively produced are being inscribed, in return, onto the individual and collective foodscape of the city through our everyday food choices and continuous habits and practices. The course also traces the crystallization of a conscious distinction of Hong Kong food and their influences among the residents of the city and overseas. This course explores how the exercise of the right to the city follows not only our hearts’ but also our stomachs’ desire, and the food for the stomach is always and simultaneously the food for thought. 

Tracing the development of modernity in western architecture, this course examines a series of movements and cities from the mid-18th century to the present. Major examples include Neoclassicism in Washington, D.C., Haussmann’s renovation of Paris, colonialism in Hong Kong and Shanghai, skyscrapers in Chicago and New York, and the international spread of Modernism and the diverse movements that have followed it. Emphasis is placed on construction technology, architectural theory, and the way buildings express institutional ideologies. Tutorials include visits to local buildings.

This course employs economic analysis to examine the interrelationships between three institutions: the state, law, and the economy. Topics covered include the nature and origin of the state, the differences between liberal and populist conceptions of the democratic state, and the dilemmas of political organization, conflict, and succession in autocratic states. The course also explores the rule of law, the relationship between political and economic order, and rent-seeking groups. Additionally, it delves into the distinctions between common law and civil law systems and the consequences of these differences. The course also investigates the modernization hypothesis, critical juncture theory, and the factors that contribute to the transition between dictatorships and democracies (and vice versa). Furthermore, it examines the role of economic, behavioral, and structural factors in these transitions, as well as the reasons why revolutions often come as surprises. The course also seeks to answer whether democracy promotes growth, the impact of inherited legal systems on growth, and the relationship between rulers, citizens, and interest groups in the pre-industrial world. Utilizing an analytic narratives approach, the course draws upon comparative case histories from various regions, including Europe, America, China, India, and the Middle East, to offer a comprehensive understanding of these topics.

This course develops students’ skills in musical improvisation through an integrated approach combining lectures and practical workshops. Lectures focus on the application of core musical materials, encouraging students to explore a broad range of stylistic and structural elements through multiple perspectives. Workshops provide opportunities for experiential learning, with an emphasis on 222 ensemble-based improvisation and real-time musical interaction. Students actively participate using their primary instrument or voice, applying concepts in a hands-on, collaborative environment that supports both individual creativity and group cohesion. 

This course delves into the shadows of the criminal underworld and explore the complexities of global crime. It is structured into three parts. The first section introduces the foundational theories, concepts, and terminology in global crime and justice. It covers the growing importance of knowledge production beyond traditional Anglo-American bases of power and how colonialism has shaped our understanding of the crime. In the second part, the course delves deeper into responses to global crime, from the controversial death penalty for drug trafficking to the rising militarization of borders. Students investigate how vulnerable populations can become ensnared within these complex frameworks. It untangles the complex and interwoven nature of global crimes through an in-depth study of trafficking in its many forms (human, wildlife, diamonds and antiques). This course investigates how global crimes can blur the boundaries between victims and offenders and shape borders through policing responses. Finally, it investigate state crimes, online ‘sleuthing’, and the phenomenon of ‘true crime’ consumption to illustrate how key social changes such as globalization, technology and media influence crime policing, perception and victims. Global crime offers a multidisciplinary, critical and comparative perspective in criminology.