National Taiwan University

This course looks at Hong Kong’s colonial past and walks through a rather autonomous governance under “one country, two systems” to the present (almost) puppet government under China. It delves into the changing history, society, culture, economy, and politics of Hong Kong, taking a critical approach to understanding Hong Kong. Since Hong Kong is still a global city and a small region that is never independent of any country, inevitably, the course situates it in relation to the UK, China, the US, or other countries. At the same time, the course assesses the relevance of Hong Kong to the world and dares to envision its future.  

There is no prerequisite for this course; it is designed for students from all backgrounds. The course is heavily lecture-based but will have discussions and occasional film appreciation sessions. Furthermore, guest speakers from Hong Kong will be invited to speak about different subjects, including the media, religion, civil society, public administration, housing, and the diaspora of Hong Kong.  

This course introduces urban economics and covers fundamental principles developed in economics to understand the functioning/workings of an urban economy and the various aspects of urban life. The course begins with the definition of a city, why cities form by introducing the economics of agglomeration, and how cities interact to form the urban system of the entire economy. These factors affect all urban phenomena. The course then analyzes the internal spatial structure of a city by developing a theory of commuting, housing demand and housing production. It then analyzes transportation and land/housing issues in more detail. Finally, the course discusses the optimality of local public good provision and connects local public finance and housing markets with land taxation.  

This course is designed to analyze cancer from an evolutionary angle and to provide another way of thinking about cancer biology. The course covers the following topics:

• Basic genetics for studying cancer evolution
• Mutations
• Phylogenetic tree
• Why study evolution in cancers?
• Cancer evolution in colon, breast, lung, liver and other cancers
• Evolution in normal tissue 

This course introduces fundamental concepts and theories of public administration as well as an overview of issues and practices related to the public administration. The course focuses on the environment, values, and core functions of public administration. It explores: (1) how various government agencies run; (2) dynamics between government and politics, and (3) relationships between government, market, civil society, and citizens.

This course aims to equip students with the skills necessary to deliver effective and engaging impromptu speeches. In this course, students will learn how to apply various impromptu speech frameworks, including the PREP, STAR, and PPF models, to organize their thoughts quickly and communicate their ideas clearly. This course will also cover persuasive techniques, opening & closing techniques and strategies for building confidence and delivering impactful speeches on stage. Furthermore, students will develop transferable skills in critical thinking and non-verbal communication that can be applied to a variety of personal and professional settings.

Russian III is a year-long course for the students who finished Russian II. During the second semester of the course, the class will practice conversational Russian, which is used in daily settings for discussion of news, lifestyle, etc.

Methods of instruction focus on developing functional competence in Russian listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Every topic is built around forming communicative skills and includes new vocabulary, grammar, listening, speaking, and writing exercises.

Also, students will learn more about Russian daily culture and some useful idiomatic expressions and modern slang. 

This course is directed towards those who have taken Pre-Advanced Chinese I of the NTU Chinese Language Course for International Students or those who have learned Chinese for 400-450 hours (6hrs/week). This course uses the textbook Practical Audio-Visual Chinese III (chapter 8~ chapter 14) to help students develop proficient language skills in listening, speaking, reading and writing that would enable them to communicate effectively in their daily lives. Students will learn commonly-used new vocabularies and grammar that are not often used in daily conversations. Students will be able to use appropriate Chinese language to carry on discussions and further understand Taiwanese language and culture as they progress through the course.

Located at the intersection between economics and political science, political economy as a field explores a great variety of issues arising from interactions between economic and political arenas. This course is designed to introduce to students the conceptual tools developed by political economists for assessing the role politics plays in economic activities and vice versa. Specifically, the course investigates the following topics:

• Social Networks 
• Historical Political Economy 
• Institutional Complementarity 
• Cognitive Political Economy 
• Public Debt 
• Regime Transitions 
• Institutional Choices 
• Natural Resource Curse 
• Political Polarization 

While the list is by no means exhaustive, the topics included are nonetheless well established in the literature and are very useful for students to learn the necessary analytic skills from both theoretical and empirical perspectives. The ultimate goal of the course is to enable students to think independently and formulate their own views as a political economist.

This tutorial course is directed towards those who are enrolled in the Pre-Advanced Chinese, Advanced Low Chinese and Advanced Mid Chinese course levels of the General Chinese Language Course. It aims to help students learn commonly-used new vocabulary and grammar that are not often used in daily conversations. Students will be able to use appropriate Chinese language to carry on discussions and understand commonly-used writings and articles. By the end of this course, students are expected to be capable of giving an oral presentation and writing a short essay on common societal topics, such as climate, history, culture, politics and economics, sports and entertainments, tourism, etc. Students are expected to be capable of understanding and writing articles, advertisements and leaflets.

In the past two decades, social media has drastically shaped our understanding and practice of health. This course provides an overview of theories and methods intersecting with social media and health. Following the historical development of social media, the course covers health citizen engagement (information behaviors), contents (user-generated messages), platform governance (digital surveillance and resistance), and other aspects of social media related to health and healthcare. The course materials draw on interdisciplinary perspectives from public health, communication studies, and science and technology studies. Students will learn how the use and design of social media might reinforce health inequality while critically evaluating different stakeholders’ standpoints. Students will also have a chance to analyze health campaigns and select communication strategies for different audiences and sectors. Overall, the course aims to provide students with theoretical lenses and practical tools to engage in meaningful health intervention. The course design also seeks to enhance students’ digital health literacy.