Courses offered in this area enable students to develop skills in various fields in the humanities, including the study of languages, cultures, past and present civilizations, and creative expressions of various kinds. Students explore what it means to be human with reference to a global range of texts and modalities, often from a cross-cultural or inter-cultural perspective. They participate in discussions and activities in aesthetics, arts, literature, history, religion, spirituality, philosophy, ethics, cultural memory and related subjects.
| * Compulsory course for students who understand Chinese |
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| Year Level: 1 | |||
| Equivalent GE Area(s) in 2011/2012 Model: | Area 2 – Chinese/Foreign Language Area 8 – World Histories and Cultures |
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This is an introductory course to key features of Chinese language and culture, with a special focus on the interplay between language and thought. The course will present studies on how Chinese language influences Chinese ways of thinking, how it shapes our understanding of Chinese culture, and how it gives rise to debates regarding the comparison between Chinese and Western philosophy.
| * Compulsory course for students who do not understand Chinese |
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| Year Level: 1 | |||
| Equivalent GE Area(s) in 2011/2012 Model: | Area 2 – Chinese/Foreign Language | ||
This is an introductory course to key features of Chinese language and culture, with a special focus on the interplay between language and thought. The course will present studies on how Chinese language influences Chinese ways of thinking, how it shapes our understanding of Chinese culture, and how it gives rise to debates regarding the comparison between Chinese and Western philosophy.
| Year Level: 1 | ||
| Equivalent GE Area(s) in 2011/2012 Model: |
Area 2 – Chinese/Foreign Language | |
In this course the students expand their knowledge of Chinese languages and Chinese communities and understand language phenomena as an expression of culture and as a function of society. Through readings, discussions and mini-projects the students apply the sociolinguistics knowledge introduced to answer academic and practical questions. Global and local language situations are surveyed in a Chinese perspective and current issues in language matters are analyzed. Through problem-solving exercises, the students hone their skills of critical thinking, communication and collaboration.
| Year Level: 1 | ||
| Equivalent GE Area(s) in 2011/2012 Model: |
Area 2 – Chinese/Foreign Language | |
Through classroom instruction for students to grasp the knowledge of Chinese Popular Literature such as: fiction, opera, folk song, etc. Topics such as the analysis and interpretation of texts, themes, psychology and sociological studies of selected masterpieces will be covered. Works discussed will focus on the connection with the life and experience of students, and include the different kinds of theme and genre of popular literature.
| Year Level: 1 | ||
| Equivalent GE Area(s) in 2011/2012 Model: |
Area 8 – World Histories and Cultures | |
In this course students will be introduced to the vibrant diversity of the artistic scene in the Portuguese-speaking countries, addressing the way they dialog with each other and establish multidirectional exchanges among them. The course will explore how the crosscurrents of artistic debate in the twentieth century have been particularly prolific in stressing the tension between tradition and innovation, center and periphery, convergence and divergence, especially in the aftermath to the postcolonial redefinition of these countries.
| Year Level: 1 | ||
| Equivalent GE Area(s) in 2011/2012 Model: |
Area 8 – World Histories and Cultures | |
This course will explore the complex and diverse realities of the Portuguese-speaking world. Starting from an approach to the historical background of these countries and to the insertion of these communities in their specific regional contexts, students will be introduced to the multilayered relations between them, covering a range of dimensions such as the political, economic and cultural.
| Year Level: 1 | ||
| Equivalent GE Area(s) in 2011/2012 Model: |
Area 12 – Visual and Performing Arts | |
In this course, students explore the current themes and issues in dance by participating in theoretical (lectures/tutorials), practical (studio/performance), and aesthetic (dance film appreciation/critique) classes. Students develop an awareness of the body through movement, dance improvisation, creative processes, choreography, interdisciplinary arts, language, and literature. Theoretical and aesthetic components help students develop analytical thinking skills while practical sections challenge them to think more deeply on dance and the role it plays in society. Classes focus on a range of activities that dancers and movement practitioners use to foster kinesthetic awareness, critical thinking, movement experimentation, play/outcome-based learning, and communication through body language.
| Year Level: 1 | ||
| Equivalent GE Area(s) in 2011/2012 Model: |
Area 8 – World Histories and Cultures | |
This course traces the historical origins of globalization, examining the long-distance trade and imperial expansion that increasingly linked regions of the world together from around the year 1500. The course follows these phenomena through the modern period and up to the present. It explores how the lives of people around the world have changed in response to the globalization of society, culture, politics, and the economy.
| Year Level: 1 | ||
| Equivalent GE Area(s) in 2011/2012 Model: |
Nil | |
This course introduces the Bible (Hebrew & Christian) and the Mythology of Greece and Rome – pillars of Western civilisation. Their somewhat different value systems are seen as a cause of tension between Athens and Jerusalem, a dynamic at the heart of Western culture. That relationship, and the mythologies arising from these dual systems will be examined inthis semester-long course.
By looking at key stories from these dual mythologies, this course equips students to understand how Western values have been constructed and how even in the modern world its culture continues to draw on these foundational myths.
Students will study their use in art, music, language, architecture, philosophy and astronomy. While these stories are important in their own right, students will also learn to read art e.g., various depictions of the same story, and to understand the central role these myths continue to play in our world today.
| Year Level: 1 | ||
| Equivalent GE Area(s) in 2011/2012 Model: |
Area 10 – Values, Ethics and Meaning of Life | |
This course offers an overview of humour in Western and Chinese philosophies. It looks at humour in philosophical works, as well as at philosophers’ expressed attitudes to humour, and covers major contemporary philosophical theories and explanations of humour. Philosophy offers a great set of tools to help us understand humour, while, at the same time, humour is one of the most engaging ways to think on major philosophical questions.
| Year Level: 1 | ||
| Equivalent GE Area(s) in 2011/2012 Model: |
Area 12 – Visual and Performing Arts | |
This is an introductory course concentrating on masterpieces of art to foster students’ visual intelligence and artistic sensitivity. It engages students with artworks in various media, forms, and styles, guiding them to interpret art through viewing, reading, discussing, and writing. Focusing on media and styles, this course unfolds its content through the three sections of fine arts, including sculptures, ink paintings, and oil paintings. Appreciating art aesthetically and intellectually is an indispensable ability for students to better perceive and participate in our contemporary society where images play an increasingly significant role in mass communication and transcultural exchange worldwide. The goal of this course is to provide students with opportunities to develop an in-depth understanding of art and to cultivate an aesthetic appreciation and intellectual interpretation of the visually cultured world.
| Year Level: 2 | ||
| Equivalent GE Area(s) in 2011/2012 Model: |
Area 3 – Communication | |
In this course students learn to express themselves creatively through the medium of English. While the main emphasis is on story making, students experience a range of creative texts (including stories, poems, songs and films), as models for their own imaginative work.
Students will learn to write simple texts in key creative genres: for instance different types of poem, short story and life writing (biography and autobiography).
Learning to tell and write stories, individually and in groups, students gain confidence in expressing themselves and in constructing a narrative from different points of view. Working from lecture to discussion mode, class time is largely devoted to understanding how simple stories work and to practising basic techniques of storytelling. Group work, in-class performance and writing for a global audience are integral to the course. Reading and homework assignments set from week to week challenge the student to create engaging creative texts from memory and imagination. Assessment is by individual portfolio including an agreed combination of individual and group work in different genres.
| Year Level: 2 | ||
| Equivalent GE Area(s) in 2011/2012 Model: |
Area 12 – Visual and Performing Arts | |
Physical relationship presents itself one way or another in everyday life and discourse. This course invites students to go beyond the biology and mechanics of human sexual behaviours and think about the aesthetics of eros as featured in the arts. Students will be introduced to an array of historical and contemporary representations, narratives and discussions of sex in visual arts (paintings, sculptures and films), music (from classical art songs and operas to hip hop lyrics and MVs) and literature. ‘Sexuality in the Arts’ considers how various forms of artistic creation reflect and shape perception and symbolism of sex in a range of historical and cultural domains. Material of discussion will be chosen from both Asian and Western contexts.
| Year Level: 2 | ||
| Equivalent GE Area(s) in 2011/2012 Model: |
Area 10 – Values, Ethics and Meaning of Life | |
This course introduces students to the Holocaust, the systematic murder of the Jews of Europe by the Nazi regime between the years 1939 and 1945. In seeking to understand how the Holocaust happened, students will be introduced first to concepts like racial prejudice and other forms of discrimination, anti-Semitism, and the role of nationalism in creating concepts of the Other. The course will study the rise of the Nazi Party in Weimar Germany, its accession to power in 1933 and the systematic denigration of, and discrimination against, Jews from the years 1933 to 1939. The course will discuss the power of propaganda, the effects of discriminatory laws excluding Jews from all areas of public life and how these lead first to the mass murder of Jews in eastern Europe (Operation Barbarossa) and then the Final Solution, with the establishment of death camps, of which Auschwitz-Birkenau is but the most infamous. This course will also address the issue of genocide, how the Holocaust lead to the concept of genocide, first described as such by Raphael Lemkin in 1943 and subsequent international treaties seeking to prevent further genocides. The course will look at other genocides, including Armenia, Cambodia, Rwanda, and Darfur. Special attention will also be paid to the Japanese invasion of China, the Nanjing Massacre and Unit 731 in Manchuria.
| Year Level: 2 | ||
| Equivalent GE Area(s) in 2011/2012 Model: |
Area 12 – Visual and Performing Arts | |
This course consists of two major components: art introduction and drama. This course is designed to acquaint students with the vocabularies and concepts for critiquing and analyzing performing arts. It examines the functions of dramatic art from social and global perspectives, and it encourages students to develop judgment in analysis and criticism of drama as a performing art form. Students will gain an overview of the generic concepts and historical movements in different forms of drama across eras and cultures. In the drama component, students will be introduced to the form and function of dramatic literature in relationship to theatrical performance. Study of plays as texts will lead to rehearsal and performance of selected scenes/acts from plays.
| Year Level: 2 | ||
| Equivalent GE Area(s) in 2011/2012 Model: |
Area 12 – Visual and Performing Arts | |
This course aims to encourage students to explore an extensive array of music genres throughout the history of Western and non-Western cultures and nurture a positive attitude and appreciation toward music. The students will learn to comprehend the elements of music (i.e., pitch, melody, rhythm, harmony, and form) and commonly used terminologies illustrated in major compositions. The students will travel through different periods (i.e., from the Middle Ages to the Contemporary Era) and listen to distinguished musical features associated with major composers and their popular works. Finally, the students will connect this knowledge to the present context that music has become prevalent in our daily lives (i.e., music in movies or public places). The proportion of Western music is approximately 70%, whereas that of non-Western music (i.e., Chinese or other Asian cultures) is 30%.
| Year Level: 2 | ||
| Equivalent GE Area(s) in 2011/2012 Model: |
Area 12 – Visual and Performing Arts | |
Artworks of different genres have been delighting people from all ages and all places. We enjoy their beauty and their articulation, but we know nothing or very little about their creation process. The practice of aesthetic appreciation of art enables us not only to enjoy art through deeper understanding of the works, but also to recognize and realize our creative potential and capability, as well as to cultivate and broaden our vision of artistic culture. The course will be taught in two parts: Firstly, Introduction to visual and performing arts, which includes common lectures on What is Art? Art and Culture, Understanding Art Genres, Approaches to Art Appreciation. Secondly, Introduction to Visual Arts – Form, Style & Culture, which includes lectures designed to equip the students with basic knowledge of the different visual art forms and teach them how to appreciate and interpret such artworks by illustrating the relationship between form/style and theme/culture. Masterpieces from different regions/places reveal not merely local colors, but also rich cultural contents, echoing profound problems of life for seeing and understanding the world.
| Year Level: 2 | ||
| Equivalent GE Area(s) in 2011/2012 Model: |
Area 8 – World Histories and Cultures | |
This is a thematic course for GE program. It will trace and examine the way that human memories have been represented in arts, literature, films and all material cultures, which is different from the professional history writings yet also reflecting history, and which has been probably more effective and influential method of recording the human past. The course will choose one of the historical themes, such as colonialism, imperialism, industrialization, revolution, war, independent movement, communism, reform, globalization, migration, trade, women, etc., as the topic of the class and encourage students to have a dialogue with the people who lived in the past about the evolved issues. Through comparing the historical documents and tangible cultural materials with the stories told by arts, literature and films, students will learn about how to tell the imagination of the past from the historical reality, the rhythm and pace of change from the historical continuity, as well as what the humanity and human strength is all about.
| Year Level: 2 | ||
| Equivalent GE Area(s) in 2011/2012 Model: |
Area 8 – World Histories and Cultures | |
This course examines the evolution of western civilization from antiquity to the eighteenth century. Over the course of the semester, students will develop an understanding of how the concept of ‘western civilization’ – that is taken to mean, the social and cultural norms, ethical values, traditional customs, religious beliefs and political systems of ‘the west’ – were based historically on a series of cultural borrowings – artistic, literary, intellectual and political – between rivalling states and empires based mainly in Europe. With the rise of Christianity in the Late Roman Empire, students will examine how peoples in Europe gradually became aware of themselves and the lands they inhabited as being ‘western’, and of being part of a ‘western civilization’. Defining themselves first against other powerful civilizations, most notably Islamic civilizations in ‘the East’, this process quickly gathered speed in the sixteenth century as Europeans gradually moved to other parts of the world and began encountering other ‘non-western’ peoples from Asia, Africa and the Americas.
| Year Level: 2 | ||
| Equivalent GE Area(s) in 2011/2012 Model: |
Area 10 – Values, Ethics and Meaning of Life | |
This course introduces students to major moral traditions (for example: Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Daoism, Shinto, or Bushido) in Asia. Close attention is given to basic values and ethical categories (for example: karma, samsara, moksha, dharma, ren, li, or dao) that have informed Asian moral discourse with special reference to the pivotal role of these values and categories in shaping social, economic, and political life in Asian societies.
| Year Level: 2 | ||
| Equivalent GE Area(s) in 2011/2012 Model: |
Area 12 – Visual and Performing Arts | |
This course introduces students to Creativity from a variety of perspectives. Instructors of the course take students through a challenging yet fun learning journey, which will nurture their creativity and help them see and hear differently.
This course is a combination of classroom teaching as well as online teaching. It is a SPOC (small, private online course) which includes materials designed for UM’s MOOC Creativity (http://www.xuetangx.com/courses/course-v1:UMX+CRT101+2018_T4/about) Pedagogy adopted in this course is blended learning through the use of various technologies (such as UMMoodle, Rain Classroom, mobile learning). Instructors will apply a range of teaching methods, including regular lectures and tutorials, discussion fora, practices and workshops.
| Year Level: 2 | ||
| Equivalent GE Area(s) in 2011/2012 Model: |
Area 10 – Values, Ethics and Meaning of Life | |
This course offers an engaging exploration of Language Contact within the context of Portuguese varieties across Asia. It welcomes students from various backgrounds, as it provides an introductory insight into the fascinating global phenomenon of the new language varieties emerging from contacts and interactions between different communities, cultures, and languages. We achieve this through a curated selection of case studies, focusing on the development of Portuguese language varieties in Asia.
Our primary objective is to examine the pivotal role played by cultural, socio-political, socio-historical and economic factors in shaping the emergence of these new language varieties. This course will underscore the various modes of contact between Southeast Asian and East Asian nations and the European languages, particularly Portuguese. This exploration extends to Greater China, with a special emphasis on Macao.