SCHOOL OF HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCE
DIVISION OF HUMANITIES
Unlike the single-discipline departments in the University, the Division of Humanities offers a range of specialisations which includes history, art history, literature, philosophy, religion, and anthropology. Asignificant focus of interest is on studies relating to Hong Kong, Chinaand thewider Asia-pacific region. The Division will alsooffer courses in music, the performing arts and in other fields, in due course.
In line with the University's aim to produce specialists who will not only excel in theirtechnical expertise but also beequipped with a broad outlookon life and the universe, the Humanities Division offers a range of service courses for undergraduates in science, engineering and management, and also a focused, integrated curriculum for postgradu- ates who are specialising in the humanities. For both, the first emphasis is placed on Asia, progressing from East Asia (Hong Kong, Macau, China and Japan) to cover South and Southeast Asia, to Europe by 1993-1994. Moreover, the Humanities programme is interdisciplinary and comparative in orientation for both teaching and research. Asia is approached not in isolation as a region but from a cosmopolitan perspective which promotes critical self-awareness in a global context. It is also noteworthy that the Humanities Division is not subdivided into traditional departments such as history, literature and philosophy, etc. Instead, it stands as an organised multiplicity which is an institutional locus for creative dialogue and interaction between faculty and students with different disciplinary interests.
Faculty
Professor and Head of Division :
Hong HSU, BA, MA, PhD National Taiwan Professors :
Edward T. CH'IEN, BA National Taiwan; MA Univ of California, Riverside; MPhil, PhD Columbia
William TAY, BA National Chengchi; PhD Univ of California, San Diego
Ching-Hsien WANG, BA Tunghai Taiwan; MFA Iowa; PhD Univof California, Berkeley Visiting Professors :
Chang-tai HUNG, BA Chinese Univ of Hong Kong; MA, PhD Harvard
Lawrence
R.
SMITH, BA, MA, PhD Univof California, Berkeley, BFA Eastern Michigan Qinyuan WEI, Beijng; Graduate School, People's Univ, ChinaVisiting Reader :
John C. HOLT, AB Gustavus Adolphus Coll; AM Graduate Theological Union; PhD Chicago
Senior Lecturers :
Kwok-kou Leonard CHAN, BA, MPhil, Cert of Educ, PhD Hong Kong; MA Toronto Michelle YEH, BA National Taiwan; MA, PhD Univ of Southern California
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Lecturers :
Paula ARAI, BA Kalamazoo Coll; MTS, MA, PhD Harvard
James P. BUCHANAN, Jr, BA Hampden-Sydney Coll; MA Yale; PhD Chicago Li-fen CHEN, BA National Taiwan; MA Wake Forest; PhD Univ of Washington Chi-Cheung CHOI, BA National Taiwan; MPhil Chinese Univ of Hong Kong; DLitt
Tokyo
Bockla KIM, BA Yonsei; MST Yale; PhD Boston
David P. LAWRENCE, BA George Washington; MA, PhD Chicago Ke-wen WANG, BA National Taiwan; MA, PhD Stanford Assistant Lecturer :
lik-sang LIU, BSocSc, Dip Ed Chinese Univ of Hong Kong
Undergraduate Courses
The Division offers a range of electives in the fields of Chinese history, intellectual history, literature, philosophy, religion, and cultural anthropology. There are no ~rereauisites for most courses. Lectures, seminars and individual tutorials are utilised in most courses, and students are assessed by course work and/or written examinations.
Postgraduate Programmes and Resemrch
Research programmes lead to the degrees of MPhil and PhD in the fields of earlv modem and modem Chinese history, South China studies, intellectual history, literature, religion and philosophy. A taughtM~ programme in Chinese Studies is offered jointly with the Division of Social Science. An MA programme in Humanities is also offered beginning in 1993194. Candidates for all postgraduate degrees should normally be good honours graduates in relevant disciplines, and those seeking admission to the PhD programme will generally be registered as MPhil students in the first instance, and will be subject to an upgrading review. Candidates for both MPhil and PhD degrees will attend such preparatory courses as are required, but the greater part of the work for each degree will be devoted to the preparation of a research thesis.
Master of Philosophy (MPhil) in Humanities
The primary aim of the MPhil programme in the humanities is to provide training for students who are intent on a career of teaching and research as professionals. It may be pursued either as an end-in-itself or as a preparation for the research degree of PhD.
Students are expected to function at thegraduate level in at least two languages and required to take at least 12 credii course work. The remaining degree requirements are independent research and the preparation of a thesis under faculty supervision.
Students may attend such preparatory courses as are required, but the greater part of the work is devoted to the preparation of a thesis based upon original research. The thesis must demonstrate bibli&r&hical proficiency with r e s k to the literature of the field and be orallv defended before a thesis examination committee of which one member is from outside-the Division.
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Students may specialise in literature, history, cultural anthropology, philosophy and religion, but are expected to transcend conventional disciplinary boundaries to cultivate expertise in inter-disciplinary dialogue and interaction.
Master of Arts (MA) in Humanities
This MAdegree by coursework may be pursued either as an end-in-itself or as preparation for the research degree of PhD. Students are required to take a minimum of 30 credits, of which at least 24 must be at the postgraduate level. Among these 24 credits, students may take six credits of independent studies under the supervision of a faculty member. Depending on their state of preparedness, students in the MA programme may be required to attend lecture courses, but the essential training takes place in seminars which involve the writing of term papers.
Given its emphasis upon comparative and interdisciplinary approaches, the Humanities Division is not subdivided into traditional departments such as history, literature, and philosophy. Each student will work under the guidance of the Division and a faculty supervisor to formulate a study plan combining course work within the chosen field of specialisation as well as other disciplines.
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Humanities
The primary aim of the PhD programme in the humanities is to provide training for students who are intent on careers of teaching and research as professionals.
Admission into the programme is contingent upon the possession of an MPhil or its equivalent. Students may decide to specialise in literature, history, cultural anthropology, or philosophy and religion, but are expected to transcend conventional disciplinary boundariestocultivateexpertise in inter-disciplinarydialogueand interaction. All students are required to fulfil a minimum of 24 credits of course work and to demonstrate a reading knowledgeof alanguageotherthan Chinese and English. Afterthesuccessful completion of a qualifying examination covering areas specified for each specialisation, the student will prepare, and have approved, a thesis research proposal. Subsequently, the candidate's independent research conducted under the supervision of a faculty member aims at the writing and defence of a doctoral thesis.
Students in literature will focus primarily on Chinese literature from compara- tive, interdisciplinary, and theoretical perspectives. Of the 24 credits in required course work, nine shall be from the core courses: Seminar in Comparative Literature, Modern Literary Theory, and Traditional Chinese Literary Theories and Criticism. To become a doctoral candidate, the student must pass a qualifying examination, which covers one major field (i.e., the chosen field of concentration) and one supporting field (e.g. another genre or period).
Students in history have the option of choosing one of the following two areas as their major field of concentration: Late Imperial China (from Ming to ca. 1800) and Modern China (since ca. 1800). Approaches to the historical subject can be political,
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social and economic, intellectual, and comparative. Of the 24 credits in required course work, nine shall be from the core courses (selected according to the chosen field of concentration) and another nine shall be courses in a supporting field. The supporting field, selected by the student with the approval of the supe~isor,
can
be in the humanities or any one areain the social sciences. The qualifying examination covers the chosen field of concentration, the supporting field, and one other field of the student's own choice.Students in cultural anthropology and social history will focus their research primarily on South China. Research areas inlcude not only Guangdong and Fujian, but span
an
through Hong Kong and Macau to Hainan. lt also include overseas ~ h i n e s e fin Southeast Asia. Ja~an. North America and Europe) and the minorities of south and southwestern china ( ~ h e , ' ~ a o , Dan, etc.). Of the 30 credits in course work required, 12 shall be fmm thecore courses: Field Research:Theory and Practice, Study of Archival and Folk Documents, Topics in Cultural Anthropology, and Topics in Social History. The qualifying examination covers three areas: the first focuses on theory and methods in cultural anthropology, the second on modern Chinese social and economic history, and the third on the ethnographical literature and ethnological issues of South China.Students in philosophy and religion have the option of choosing one of the following three areas as their majorfield of concentration: East Asia (e.g.,Chinand Japan), South Asia (e.g. lndia and Sri Lanka) and the West (e.g., France and Germany). These areas, in spite of appearances to the contrary, are to be understood, not eidetically as geopolitical enclosures, but in fluid terms as historically constituted cultural formations.
Course work must be cross-cultural in scope and critically self-aware in methodology.
Therefore, of the 24 credits in required course work, at least half shall involve theory, and philosophies and religions, in areas other than the chosen field of concentration. The qualifying examination covers one major and two minor fields. The major is the field of concentration whereas the minors
can
be theory, an area of philosophy and religion outside the area of concentration, or another discipline in the humanities and the social sciences. The culmination of the PhD programme in philosophy and religion is a successful oral defence of the thesis which should demonstrate not only originality in research and analysis but also a thorough bibliographcial knowledge of relevant scholarly works including those written in a second language.School of Humanities and Social Science
Professor William TAY
Critical theory, cultural criticism; twentieth-century Chinese literature.
Professor Ching-Hsien WANG
Classical Chinese poetry, poetics and traditional literary criticism; comparative literature, especially East-West relations; modern literature.
Dr John Clifford HOLT, Visiting Reader
Religion and social change in Budhist cultures; Buddhist art in lndia and Sri Lanka.
Dr Kwok-kou Leonard CHAN, Senior Lecturer
Classical Chinese literary criticism; classical and modern Chinese poetry and fiction; theory of literary history.
Dr Michelle YEH, Senior Lecturer
Modern and contemporary Chinese literature; Chinese and Western compara- tive poetics; women's literature.
Dr Paula ARAI, Lecturer
Comparative religion, particularly Japanese Buddhism, and also modern American religious history, especially issues related to Asian-Americans, and the reinter- pretation of Japanese Buddhism in light of the contributions of women.
Faculty Research
Interests
Dr James Porter BUCHANAN, Lecturer Professor Hong HSU, Head of Division
Early modern Chinese social and economic history, including the salt industry, internal migration and social change; the city in Chinese history.
Professor Edward CH'IEN
Premodern Chinese thought in a comparative perspective, especially of the early medieval and early modern periods of Chinese history.
Comparative philosophies and religions, with emphasis on China and the modern and postmodern West. Principal concerns are classical and modern ethical theories as they relate to issues of science, technology, and society.
Dr Li-fen CHEN, Lecturer
Fiction; literary theories; comparative poetics; modern literature.
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Dr Chi-Cheung CHOI, Lecturer
The socio-economic history of China, particularly South China and overseas Chinese settlements including Hong Kong, Macau and Southeast Asia, from the 12th century to the present.
Dr Bockja KIM, Lecturer
Philosophy of religion; comparative philosophy of religion; history of Western philosophy; comparative ethics; philosophy of J.N. Findlay; Greek philosophy, German idealism, Wittgenstein.
Dr David Peter LAWRENCE, Lecturer
Comparative philosophy and philosophy of religion; problems of cross-cultural interpretation and relativism; monistic Kashmiri Saivism; Indian linguistictheory; Buddhist logic.
Dr Ke-wen WANG, Lecturer
Nationalist China, especially intra-party politics of the Guomindang; the political career of Wang Jingwei (1 883-1 944); modem Chinese nationalism.
Tik-sang LIU, Assistant Lecturer
Family and kinship, Chinese popular religion and shamanism, marginal cul- tures and fluid societies, ethnicity, ecological anthropology, and visual anthropology.
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