About
This site showcases materials from various Common Core Courses of University of Hong Kong selected by course coordinators and teachers of each course. The project started in spring 2018, aiming to build a virtual “exhibition centre” in this server to archive digital products in all Common Core courses in the future. Examples of these products include but not limited to student works, multimedia artifacts, and exhibition posters collected from Common Core Student Learning Festivals. The materials could be born-digital or digitized from their original physical forms.
The items presented here do not represent complete collections from student works in any courses; rather, teachers selected posters, drawings, photographs, videos, artifacts, and other materials to provide a representative sample of perspectives on Common Core course in the University of Hong Kong. Students also submitted their final paper or other documentation to fulfill the requirements of Common Core.
List of Common Core Courses Archived in this website
CCCH9027 - China's Ethnic Groups: Assimilation or Cultural Pluralism? Few countries in the world have a total population that exceeds the 110 million ethnic minorities in China. What does this mean for China’s rise in the 21st century? As the income gap between Han Chinese and ethnic minorities widens, the centuries old debate over values, identities, and cultural heritage intensifies. China’s rise will be determined by how well it governs the ethnic lands that occupy half of the country and 90 percent of its border. In short, the future hinges on being able to integrate diverse cultural groups, a challenge for any multi-ethnic states. What will happen to China’s 55 culturally diverse minority groups? This course uses basic data and current information to examine the central theoretical question: What social processes occur when people of different ethnic groups come together in a rapidly rising China?
CCCH9043 - Chinese Poetry as Social Critique This course introduces students to fundamental social and political issues at different periods in Chinese history through the primary source of poetic texts. As the relationship between the populace and the state has changed throughout history, so, too, have poetic forms. Our sources range from poems in the Book of Songs that protest the decadence of kings to contemporary avant-garde poets resisting political and cultural conformity. We explore the power of poetry and how it can convey radical messages obliquely, through symbolic imagery and imagined speakers, hence evading censorship by the regime. Students will also be given the opportunity to experiment writing their own poetry in different forms and genres.
CCCH9051 - Digitizing Cultural Heritage in Greater China This course aims to help students better recognize and appreciate the importance and values of cultural heritages in Hong Kong, China and around the world, and to open their eyes to how digital technologies can be used to conserve and preserve cultural heritage worldwide. Three digital preservation projects will serve as running examples throughout this course: one from Hong Kong (e.g., the King Yin Lei virtual reality website), one from Mainland China (e.g., the e-Dunhuang online gallery), and one from Europe (e.g., the Europeana digital collections). Students will also gain a broad understanding on how economic development and heritage preservation impact us as global citizens in this information age.
CCGL9001 - Hong Kong Cinema through a Global Lens This course takes students on an interdisciplinary exploration of the local-global interactions from a variety of approaches. With a selection of Hong Kong films, the course aims to help students attain a thorough understanding of the two-way relationship between the local, popular entertainment and the global film scene by investigating the major questions concerning globalization. Film critics and scholars will be invited to conduct guest lectures.
CCGL9042 - The Evolution of Civilization The theme of this course is that natural selection is a useful framework for understanding how humans have progressed from subsisting in relatively isolated groups to where individuals are highly specialized in their productive efforts and highly integrated with the entire world through globalization. The course will explore how this progression may be the result of genetic selection, but likely more the result of selection acting on ideas, or memes, rather than genes, but in an analogous manner.
CCGL9051 - Technology, Culture and Power in a Globalized Age This course offers a highly entertaining introduction to this interactive dynamics between TECHNOLOGY, society, and culture, situating present-day technological developments in the context of a longer history of global innovation that goes back to the industrial revolution. From flush toilets to smart robots, from washing machines to contraceptive pills, from sex toys to designer babies, from GMO crops to information technologies, the course will explore a wide-ranging number of case studies that challenge conventional ideas about technology, inviting students to develop a deeper understanding of the major social and technological forces shaping the contemporary world.
CCHU9019 - From Health to Well-being The aim of this course is for students to gain greater insight into the multi-dimensional aspects of health and to develop a more holistic and humanistic appreciation of health in both a personal and societal context. The course will encourage students to look critically at various models of health, to understand the complexities of health-related behaviours and to appreciate the possible roles played by politico-social forces, cultural change and spiritual disorientation in shaping well-being.
CCHU9055 - Metamorphoses: Tales of Transformation Mutant superheroes, zombies bereft of empathy, machines becoming self-aware, invasive technologies altering your identity – tales of transformation fascinate the popular imagination as we struggle to figure out what it means to be human in the twenty-first century. In this course, we will consider stories of transformation (or metamorphosis) that have themselves undergone transformations as they are told, and retold in written, oral, and visual media.
CCHU9059 - Making and Appreciating Drama This course is suitable for students who like to enjoy themselves, be creative, are willing to work hard and collaborate with others and perform in front of an audience. Course participants will learn about the theory and practice of drama-making and will consider the following issues: What is drama? What, briefly, are its histories and current forms? What is necessary for drama to take place? What is entailed in the creation of drama? What does drama tell us about the human condition?
CCST9025 - Genetics and Human Nature The overall theme of this course is that genetics and evolution provide a useful perspective for understanding many important aspects of our lives, including our psychological makeup and how we relate to others. The course will draw on multiple intellectual disciplines – genetics, evolution, mathematics, statistics and psychology – to address the following fundamental issues.
CCST9046 - The Science of the Mind-body-health Relationship In this course, students will delve into cutting edge issues in the science of the mind-body-health relationship and analyze how communication occurs both within and across the body’s systems (nervous, endocrine, immune). Philosophical issues of mind-body duality, the power of positive and negative suggestion, and the influence of brain architecture on behaviour will be critically examined.
CCST9060 - Exploring Human Longevity In this course, we will explore the intersection between science, technology, ageing and longevity. Reviewing how modern medicine and science have already influenced a longer human lifespan, we will take an evidence-based approach to evaluate the science behind ageing and the promise of emerging technologies relating to prolonging life, ageing, and chronic diseases.
For more information about the site, the class, or the Common Core, please feel free to contact us, and browse the Common Core official website (https://commoncore.hku.hk/).