General University Requirements (GUR)
Under GUR, student must fulfill the following requirements:
- Cluster Areas Requirement (CAR): Complete successfully 6 credits of CAR subjects from the following four Cluster Areas:
- Human nature, relations and development
- Community, organization and globalization
- History, culture and world views
- Science, technology and environment
No more than 3 credits can be taken from any of the four areas. A full listing of CAR subjects offered in the Semester 1, 2014/15 is available at:
http://www.polyu.edu.hk/ous/student_GUR_CAR.html for reference. - China Studies Requirement (CSR): Of the 6 credits of CAR described in 1 above, three has to come from a CAR subject designated as "China-related."
- Chinese and English Reading/Writing Requirement: Students have to fulfill this requirement by taking CAR subjects with a Chinese or English Reading or Writing requirement component. These subjects may coincide with the same CAR subjects as required in 1 above.
Service Learning
To cultivate in students a heart to serve, all students will have to successfully complete ONE 3-credit subject with a significant community service or civic engagement component that will benefit the service users or the community at large.
Students will apply the knowledge and skills acquired from their Major or other learning experiences at the University to the community service activities, and reflect on their service learning experience in order to link theory with practice for the development of a stronger sense of ethical, social and national responsibility.
Work-Integrated Education (WIE)
CC313 Work-Integrated Education
This subject aims to improve students’ professional competencies and overall development through training in the workplace. Students will have a chance to apply what they have learned from the subject offerings of BICS in a work context, exercise their language and cultural skills, and gain first-hand knowledge of the challenges of a work place. The WIE Coordinator, the Subject Leader and the Workplace Supervisor will play supportive roles in the students’ WIE experience.
Capstone Project
CC402 Capstone Project in Chinese Culture
Capstone Project provides a structured context in which students can reflect upon their study of Chinese culture in a systematic way and demonstrate their mastery over a related topic. The experience of undertaking the Capstone Project will prove useful to the students’ career development and further academic pursuit. The final product of the project can be a thesis, a photo essay, an exhibition or in other formats deemed appropriate after due consultation with the supervisor. The Capstone Project should include a significant writing component. A thesis, for example, should be at least 4,500 Chinese or 3,300 English words in length.
Discipline-Specific Language Requirement
CBS3351P Academic Writing and Communication in Chinese
This subject aims at fostering students’ knowledge in traditional Chinese language and classical Chinese texts/publications, in order to enhance their study in Chinese culture, and to enable them to convey and apply their cultural knowledge more accurately for academic purposes.
ELC3321 English for Students of Chinese Cultural Studies
This subject aims to develop the English language skills required by students of Chinese cultural studies to communicate effectively in their future professional careers.
Core Subjects
APSS3601 Government and Public Administration in Contemporary China
This subject introduces students to major concepts and issues involved in the study of government and public administration in contemporary China. It gives students basic exposure to the politics, government, and public administration in China and allows them to understand and explore some of the critical issues it faces.
CC308 / CC308P Discovering Chinese Culture in the Field
As the old Chinese saying goes, travel and experience afford greater learning than books. Direct observation of cultural sites is essential for students in the humanities. Abstract learning and concrete experience will become one when students combine book learning with on-site visits. This course will focus on three topics: Clans and Rituals, Historical Figures and Sites, as well as Folk Belief and Religion. Students will have the opportunity to go on study tours to cultural and historical sites of Hong Kong.
CC309 / CC309P Chinese Film and Its Social and Historical Context
The subject aims at exploring the very close relationship between Chinese films and contemporary Chinese history through the examination of films, covering not only the development in the Mainland, but also in Taiwan and Hong Kong.
CC315 / CC315P Cultural Contact between China and the West
Cultural contact is an inevitable feature of the global era, where people with different cultural backgrounds come together every day. Yet, for its frequent occurrences that at times give rise to mutual understanding and respect, such contact is also rife with mishaps, resulting in tension and even conflicts. This subject will study a diversity of materials, including memoirs, diaries, travelogues and literary works to gain an understanding of the nature and process of such contacts, and to analyze critically the cultural assumptions that shape the encounters between China and the West, including the underlying colonial, religious, commercial, intellectual and political drives. The course will also provide a historical overview of the contact between China and the West since the mid-nineteenth century. Students will develop a culturally sensitive attitude in the process, and apply what they learn from the subject to similar cross-cultural situations that they experience or witness in their lives.
Specific Area Subjects
[1] Culture and Society
APSS360 Social Problems and Social Issues in Contemporary China
The subject aims at enabling students to acquire sociological perspectives and concepts for understanding social issues and problems in the Chinese society and to develop a good understanding on the major social problems confronting contemporary Chinese society.
CC310 / CC310P Confucianism, Classical Learning and the State
The course examines the relationship between Confucianism, classical learning and the state in traditional China. It discusses the impact of Confucian thought on the political ideas as well as the political and social institutions in Chinese history. It also studies the Confucian idea of moral self-cultivation and the maintenance of the social order, in addition to the practice of Confucian social programs.
CC311 / CC311PAncient Chinese Customs
The course introduces students to ancient Chinese social customs such as the rites of passage in different major regions and dialect communities in China. It explores the reasons for the differences in customs and rites across space and time and relates them to the characteristics of Chinese culture.
[2] History and Institution
CC305 / CC305P Modern Chinese History and Culture
The history of modern China can be seen as a continuing series of socio-political-cultural campaigns that undermined Chinese culture from its appearance to its innermost code. Rescuing the country from subjugation and the nation from genocide became the main thrusts of the salvation movements that underlined almost all significant historical events and gradually weakened and unraveled China’s established orders and institutions. By the application of the salvation thread as its theoretical framework, this subject aims at exploring the origins, processes, and consequences of major historical events in modern China, such as the First and the Second Opium Wars, the Taiping and the Boxer Rebellions, the Tongzhi Restoration, the Self-strengthening Campaign, the Sino-Japanese War in 1894-5, the Hundred Days Reforms in 1898 and the collapse of the thousand-years- dynasty system in 1911.
CC306 / CC306P Politics and Military Affairs in Imperial China
The subject aims to introduce students to the power structures, political institutions, political philosophies of traditional China, as well as the military strategies, military institutions and perceptions of war in traditional China. It also aims at interpreting the inter-relationship between politics and military affairs from national and international perspectives. The continuity and change of Chinese politics and military affairs from past to present will also be examined. The subject will also provide significant help to students in their understanding of the rich experiences of government administration and military administration in imperial China.
CC312 / CC312P Women in China
No account of contemporary China would be complete without due considerations of the active and vocal roles women are playing in the private and public spheres nowadays. These changes, however, did not come about as a result of the efforts of modern women advocates alone, but in fact represented the last phase of a long process of transformations that the women situations had gone through in history. This subject allows students to go beyond the modern period into the ancient past, where they will learn not only about the social and familial odds with which women had to contend, but also the many remarkable contributions they made to the development of Chinese culture.
[3] Thoughts and Religion
CC307 / CC307P Chinese Folk Religions and Beliefs
The subject discusses the diversity and complexity of Chinese folk religions and beliefs, including Buddhism, Daoism, popular cults and their impact on both traditional and modern Chinese society and politics. The subject also examines the inaccurate images of Chinese folk religions and beliefs propagated by popular fiction and films.
CC316 / CC316P Guided Studies in The Four Books
The subject aims at introducing to students the intellectual foundation of China that was solidified by the Confucian Classics, enabling students to understand the ethical and social relations advocated by ancient Chinese philosophers that remain influential in modern times, guiding students to comprehend the modern relevance of classical wisdom and appreciate the beauty of classical Chinese language.
CC3231 / CC3231P Major Religions in China
The course introduces the major religions in China, including Buddhism, Daoism, Islam, and Christianity. Students will learn about the essentials of the canons of these religions, the classic commentaries on them, the life and scholarship of those eminent masters who authored them, and the evolution of doctrinal interpretations over times. The impact of Buddhist, Daoist, Islamic and Christian thought on the political ideas as well as the political and social institutions in Chinese history will be discussed. The course also studies their recommendations for moral self-cultivation and the maintenance of social order, in addition to considering the practice their social programs.
[4] Literature and Arts
CC314 / CC314P Art and Culture of China
This course gives a comprehensive introduction to Chinese visual arts. It provides cultural, historical and stylistic understanding to the development of visual art from c. 1500BCE to the 18th century. It emphasis on jade, bronze, secular and religious sculptures before the 9th century; and focus on the rise of literati painting and art theory, garden and architecture from 9th century to 18th century.
CC3161 / CC3161P The Art of Literary and Practical Chinese Writing
This course introduces various forms of Chinese writings as literary and practical genres. Celebrated pieces of such writings are analyzed to show their generic features and to uncover the mind and sensibilities of the writers. Problems in newspaper and magazine pieces will be identified and analyzed to guide students to master the theory and basic techniques of better literary or practical writings.
CC4241 / CC4241P Chinese Traditional Theatre and Performing Arts
The subject aims at introducing Chinese traditional theatre represented by the oldest Kun and Peking Operas, as well as those relatively young genres such as the Cantonese and Shanghai Opera. Other performing arts on stage will be also introduced to correct inaccurate, biased views of Chinese traditional theatre and other performing arts that students may have. The study and appreciation of Chinese traditional theatre and performing will provide significant help to students in their understanding of the richness and beauty of Chinese culture.
[5] Policy and Management
AF2602 Global Economic Environment
This subject aims to provide students with an overview of global business environment, and to develop students’ ability to identify and analyze those aspects of the domestic and global business environment that set the ‘parameters of choice’ within which business organizations set objectives and take actions.
CC4151 / CC4151P Chinese Cultural Policy and Heritage Management
This course aims to offer an in-depth understanding of the factors and mechanism of cultural policy formulation on the one hand and problems, constraints and prospects of cultural heritage conservation in China on the other. Definitions, characteristics, historical background, international trends in heritage preservations, development models and prospects for both cultural policies and the cultural industry in present-day China will be studied, as will factors influencing cultural policies and the impact of policy environment on the development of cultural industry.
Recent development of cultural heritage conservation and management in China within the context of rapid economic growth and marketization will be examined. Policy, management system, financing and operating models of cultural heritage conservation, as well as commercialization of cultural heritage will be looked into.
HTM3251 Tourism and Chinese Culture
This subject takes a cultural studies perspective and aims at introducing students to issues relating to the exploitation of culture and heritage for tourism and recreation. The causes and consequences of tourism in globalization and culture change are discussed with references to and implications for traditional Chinese culture. The subject will take both macro and micro perspectives. The macro perspective addresses the broad contexts of cultural tourism and tourism culture within which cultural consumption occurs in a leisure-oriented society. This encompasses commoditization in the cultural industries, authenticity in tourist experience, and tourism as experiential learning. The micro perspective deals with the phenomena and diversities of cultural tourism experience. With instances from China tourism and/or Chinese culture, this section will focus on the spectrum of cultural tourism attractions in respect to the planning, marketing and management in cultural tourism product development.