University of Hong Kong

There is an old saying, “You are what you eat”, which means the food one eats has a bearing on one’s state of mind and health. Since the discovery of fire, culinary practices have been instrumental in the progress of human evolution. Culinary practices may be regarded as one of the oldest and most widespread applications of chemistry and physical sciences in everyday life. Traditionally, understanding and knowledge on cooking are based on collective experiences of diverse individuals passed down from generations to generations. This course explores everyday life cooking and food preparation activities from scientific perspectives. It examines critically the “folk knowledge” of cooking from the viewpoints of chemical, biological, physical and social studies. This course promotes science literacy through exploring concepts and theories that are behind everyday cooking and cuisines. Using knowledge of cooking as a starting point, students explore the intimate relationship between sciences, personal life and society through daily life examples and laboratory demonstrations. All course contents including practical sections are designed to be suitable for students having little or no science training.

This course examines major trends and issues in international relations of East Asia. Instead of providing a comprehensive survey of the history, culture, and national policies of countries in the region, it mainly addresses four issues in the course: What are major trends in regional IR? What is the source of conflict in the region? What are the common interests that unite peoples and states of East Asia? How does the region organize itself? It explains dynamics and patterns of regional international relations in a broad geopolitical and geoeconomic context. Topics in discussion include major powers’ role in the region, the Korean Peninsula, the Taiwan Strait, ASEAN, Southeastern Asia and regional institution-building.

This course examines the study of international relations from 'global south' perspectives, focusing on the question of development. It covers: Eurocentrism; capitalist modernity; the Western challenge; the expansion of Europe; the 'great divergence'; imperialism and colonialism; 'catch-up' strategies; state-led industrialization; the neoliberal approach of the Washington Consensus; the rise of China; urbanization; informalization and gender relations; migration; social movements and revolution; Covid-19; and climate change. 

This course examines features of contemporary Europe and the European tradition including the cultures, history, religions, ideas, politics and economic conditions in Europe.

This course examines the Cantonese language as spoken in Hong Kong. The language will be discussed in its areal and historical context. Grammatical topics will include parts of speech in Cantonese, verbal aspect, noun classifiers, and sentence-final particles, with a particular focus on aspects of syntax which diverge from written Chinese and Putonghua such as dative, passive, and comparative constructions. Topics of sociolinguistic interest such as the use of Cantonese as a written language, ‘lazy pronunciation,’ and Cantonese as an endangered language will also be addressed.

The course examines computer architecture, memory management, machine and assembly language and computer programming design. Other course topics include: data representations; instruction sets; machine and assembly languages; basic logic design and integrated devices; the central processing unit and its control; memory and caches; I/O and storage systems; computer arithmetic.