Courses offered in Cultural Studies and Creative Industries Programme

Course Code Title
CSCI 2005 / LCST 2105
Introduction to Cultual and Creative Industries
This course aims to introduce students to cultural and creative industries in general and their development in Hong Kong in particular. It explores popular cultures and their possible relationship with the development of creative industries from a cross-cultural and inter-disciplinary perspective.
CSCI 2015 / LCST 2015
Introduction to Cultural Studies
This course provides a fundamental understanding of Cultural Studies for further advanced learning. A general introduction will be given to clarify basic historical developments of abundant theories and approaches in this field. A wide range of interesting materials in the past, as well as nowadays, will be applied to explain some important disciplinary boundaries. Controversial social phenomena related to our daily life will be chosen for discussion, to reveal the intellectual values of Cultural Studies.
CSCI 2105 / LCST 2005
Introduction to World Civilization

This course aims to introduce the different approaches in understanding different civilizations, their encounter, interaction and conflicts. It will first introduce the different theories of understanding world civilizations, e.g. their characteristics, strength and weakness, and their grandeur and decline. It will also discuss, with illustration of literary work and films examples, interaction and conflict between civilizations, e.g. China and the West, Christian and Muslim, the “discovery” of America, etc. It will serve as an introductory course for cultural studies by providing basic knowledge and methods in the study of culture and civilization.

CSCI 2115 / LCST 2115
Introduction to Gender and Sexuality
This course aims to provide students with a foundational understanding of gender and sexuality from an inter-disciplinary perspective. It equips students with a basic understanding of concepts, theories of gender and sexuality, and debates of related issues in the contemporary world. Upon completion of the course, students are expected to have a general and critical understanding of the political, cultural and social aspects of gender and sexuality and can participate in specialized discussions of related topics.
CSCI 2125 / LCST 2125
Understanding Everyday Life: A Critical Introduction
The course is divided into three parts. The first part focuses on some of the key theoretical perspectives on everyday life. This constitutes a theoretical toolkit tailor made for a critical evaluation of the topic areas presented in the second and third parts. In the second part, a progression of individual practices and familiar routines will be examined, from the most private to the social. Part three spotlights the roles individuals play in re-creating society through acts of defiance, social movements as well as daily interactions.
CSCI 3005 / LCST 3005
Artistic Creativity and Art Appreciation
This course aims to promote understanding of artistic creativity as one of the best inventions of the human mind. Students will learn to understand human artistic inventions contextually by integrating disparate theories and interpretations of art. It will equip students with knowledge of Chinese and Western art theories, the history of artistic expressions and the social application of art, through which students will be prepared to appreciate and review masterpieces of art critically in an interdisciplinary and cross-cultural manner.
CSCI 3015
Arts and Cultural Management
This course serves as a practical introduction to the role of arts and cultural organisations and their producing practice today. Students will develop their competencies required for arts and cultural management on the basis of the broad knowledge on the various aspects of the study subject, including audiences, access, finance, cultural policy, cultural production, cultural value, and so forth. They will learn the vital importance of creativity, given the increasingly global nature of competition, as well as the opportunities and challenges posed by new technologies.
CSCI 3025 / LCST 3025
Love and Humanities
This course approaches one of the most difficult questions of the human condition, “What is love?”, from philosophical, historical, and anthropological perspectives. Students will acquire an understanding of Western and cross-cultural theories of love. They will apply this understanding to contemporary cultural and social phenomena and critically respond to them. The course also creates and strengthens students’ interest in life histories with diverse cultural backgrounds as references for personal growth.
CSCI 3035 / LCST 3035
The Classical Heritage
This course aims to introduce the foundations of Western culture, i.e. the ancient Greek and Roman culture. It helps students comprehend and appreciate the various aspects of classical culture, i.e. from art, literature, history and politics, and their significance for the modern Western world. It serves not only as a perfect introduction to the foundation of Western civilization, but also provides a sound basis for the development of the student’s cultural literacy and sensibility. In addition, the course will also discuss classical Chinese heritage of the similar period, i.e. the pre-Qin culture so that the students may gain a comparative perspective. It will serve as an introductory course for cultural studies by providing basic knowledge and methods in the study of culture and civilization.
CSCI 3045 / LCST 3045
Hong Kong Studies
This course aims to introduce students to different aspects of Hong Kong studies with a multi-disciplinary approach. Through the exploration of recent studies on Hong Kong in the fields of culture, society, history and politics, it also tries to address issues related to ethics/values and promote understanding of Hong Kong as a cosmopolitan city.
CSCI 3105 / LCST 3105
A History of Personal Writings
This course introduces a variety of personal writings to students. Starting with the form, content and structure, the course will go on to give a historical overview of major pieces of personal narratives of different types, and examine the significant role played by memory in the construction of personal narratives. The course will also discuss the interesting mixture of fact and fiction in any personal writing, as well as the intriguing relationship between the subject and object of the narrative. In the course of the semester, students will also have a chance to create their own personal narratives and be guided to recognize the power of this writing in relation to their personal growth.
CSCI 3115 / LCST 3115
Creative Writing in Practice
This course provides both the theoretical knowledge and the opportunity for practical experience to students who are interested in discovering their creativity and exercising it in writing. An introduction to the creative process and the basic approaches to creativity are given at the beginning of the course, before students are taken through selected types of creative work. The course focuses equally on careful guidance in students’ appreciation of creative works, as well as in their own creative practice.
CSCI 3125 / LCST 3125
Detective Fiction and the Modern World
This course aims to study the social, cultural and historical reasons for the appearance of the fiction of detection, and to provide an overview of its development from the mid-19th century to the present. Examples of detective fiction which mark important points in its historical development will be studied to understand how this genre changes according to changing social, cultural and historical environment in our world.
CSCI 3125 / LCST 3215
The World of Theatre
This course aims to introduce the major forms in theatre from the West to the East. It discusses the relation between different theatre aesthetics and forms, and its relation to reality, and the historical and social background. It helps students to analyse and appreciate different styles and genres of theatre, their aesthetic principle, and their relation with their time and culture. It will also show examples of theatre forms with the help of original texts, and videos or live performances. Students will have the opportunity to see live theatre performances and have discussion with theatre artists.
CSCI 3135 / LCST 3135
Exploring the City
This course aims to enhance students’ understanding of the city. While cities are diverse and exciting, they also pose challenging problems. Through the examination of classic and contemporary texts on the city, students will acquire an in-depth understanding of key developments in the study of the city. Case studies will also be used to develop the analytical techniques of the students.
CSCI 3145 / LCST 3145
Fairy Tales and our Society
This course aims to guide students towards a study of the fairy tales including the basic narrative structure, major components, main themes and features, and some of the cultural and historical transformations in recent centuries. Special attention would be given to the various possible interpretations of fairy tales in our society regarding the domains of gender, race, class, culture and other factors of identity formation.
CSCI 3155 / LCST 3155
Great Thinkers on Meanings of Life
This course aims to promote students’ reflection on existential questions about life and its values by introducing them to philosophical thoughts of classical and modern thinkers of both the Chinese and the Western cultures. The focus will be on the meaning of human life. It will provide students with inspiring intellectual discourses of the selected thinkers and their self exploration and speculation process. The course will analyze philosophical texts written by these thinkers and the answers they offer on the issue of the meaning of life. Finally, it will encourage students to examine their own value systems and living attitudes to life, and to relate them to the human conditions discussed by the thinkers.
CSCI 3165 / LCST 3165
Hong Kong Cinema and Society
This course aims to enhance students’ understanding of how Hong Kong cinema has been shaping and shaped by the local society and the global context of film-making. To the end, students will also learn a wide range of general approaches to film studies and approaches to study different periods of Hong Kong film development will be fully examined.
CSCI 3175 / LCST 3175
Horror Film and Fiction
This course aims to introduce students to a comprehensive overview of the traditions of horror tales and cinematic genre of horror. Always berated and frequently overlooked in academic study, horror serves a significant social function to signal the indescribable anxiety of the society. Horror inherently deals with some forbidden topics or disturbing course matters, thus it might be the most socially revealing genre. We do not only look into the history of horror but also examine the definition of horror. The course investigates the cultural function, representation of horror and what pleasure we derive from it.
CSCI 3185 / LCST 3185
Manga and Anime: Japanese Popular Culture in Hong Kong
This course aims to introduce students to the popularity of Japanese animation (anime) and comics (manga) in Hong Kong by considering anime and manga as medium, art, culture, and industry. It examines the reasons why these forms of popular culture from Japan can appeal to Hong Kong youths and investigates their historical developments in the city. This course is relevant to all realms of academic inquiry, and should attract students who share interests in media studies, in communications, in industrial structures, in art and visual form, in gender treatment, and in Japanese fan culture, and cross-cultural studies.