This course aims to foster the students’ critical spirit to think about their own cultural identities and subject-making in a Chinese cultural and political context. It also aims to raise their consciousness to think about the issue of cultural identity in a colonized historical context like Hong Kong. The preservation and interpretations on cultural heritage in broad sense strongly relates to cultural identity, thus cultural policies and narratives on one’s cultural history matter much to politics. In this sense discovering the past is nothing but searching for cultural identity and to a certain extent, cultural identity even can be invented in an ideological sense. In a globalized i.e. capitalized context, the issue of searching for cultural identity shows the tension between traditionalist and modernist ideology, particularistic and universalistic ideology, nationalist and imperialist/colonialist ideology, etc.. This course aims to show these political complexities of cultural narratives and cultural policies through making clear both conservative side and critical side in the issue of “discovering cultural history”.  This course also aims to acquaint students with the socio-political and public policy contexts of the cultural industries. It examines the socio-political nature of culture, showing how local and global factors shape cultural policies which underpin the principles, theory and practice of cultural heritage management on the one hand and constitute the policy framework within which the cultural industries function and evolve on the other. Drawing on local, national and international experiences, it explores the critical role the cultural industries play not only in preserving the cultural identity of a community but also in facilitating social and cultural change.

Continuous Assessment: 100%