HUMA 3630
COMMUNITY AND CULTURAL IDENTITY
Instructor
Office
Phone
E-mail
Course Web
:
:
:
:
:
Siu-woo Cheung (張兆和)
Rm. 3339
2358-7763
hmcheung@ust.hk
http://lmes.ust.hk/
Course Description
“Community evokes in the individual the feeling that "here is where I belong,
these are my people, I care for them, they care for me, I am part of them. I know
what they expect from me and I from them, they share my concerns. I know this
place, I am on familiar ground, I am at home."
Daniel Yankelovitch, New Rules: Searching for Self-Fulfillment in a World
Turned Upside Down (1981)
“We miss community because we miss security, a quality crucial to a happy life,
but one which the world we inhabit is ever less able to offer and ever more
reluctant to promise.”
Zygmunt Bauman Community (2001)
“On each side of the political spectrum today we see a fear of social
disintegration and a call for a revival of community.”
Anthony Giddens Beyong Left and Right (1994)
This course is a critical introduction to the concept of community and cultural
identity from interdisciplinary perspectives. It explores community in diverse
forms of collective life as a source of security, belonging and identity in an
increasingly insecure world shaped by individualism, globalization, and the
changing modes of communication. Students will conduct presentation and
discussion in tutorial sessions on case studies of local and overseas multicultural
communities in Hong Kong, China and other parts of the world shaped by
immigration and emigration, religion and lifestyles, ethnicity and nationalism.
Fieldtrips and community service engagement will provide students with
first-hand exposure and understanding of communal experiences through
practices.
Intended Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, students should be able to
1.
Comprehend basic terms, concepts and theories from interdisciplinary
perspectives about the changing concept of community shaped by various
social and cultural conditions in particular historical circumstances.
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2.
3.
Conduct small-scale ethnographic fieldwork for collecting research data on
local multicultural communities.
Develop appreciation and respect of cultural diversity and understand the
importance of cultural awareness for social interaction in contemporary
communal life.
Course Requirements
Requirements consist of attendance at lectures and tutorials, completing the
required readings, participating in presentation and discussion during tutorial
sessions, joining fieldtrips, taking a final examination, and engaging in a
community service project.
Reading Materials :
A text-book for Lecture Classes:
Gerard Delanty. Community. London and New York: Routledge, 2003.
Supplementary reading materials for tutorial sessions will be put on the course
website http://lmes.ust.hk/.
Films/videos will be shown during class and tutorial sessions, and drawn on
for examination questions. Students should take notes during film shows.
Fieldtrips:
Three fieldtrips will be arranged. Students are required to attend at least ONE
of them. Participants are required to complete a Report/ Worksheet for each
fieldtrip. Bonus marks will be offer to those students who join additional trips.
Fieldtrip 1: Communal Celebrations of the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival in
Causeway Bay


Mid-Autumn Festival and the Fire-dragon Parade in the Hakka
community of Tai-Hang
Government organized celebration of the Mid-Autumn Festival in
Victoria Park
Fieldtrip 2: Traditional and modern communities in Yuanlong, New Territories
 The Man lineage in San Tin, Yuenlong, New Territories;
 Rebuilding Choiyuentsuen Village in Yuenlong, New Territories after its
relocation due to the contested project of high-speed train.
Fieldtrip 3: South Asian Communities in Wanchai
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

Dewali Celebration, the Sikh Temple Festival in Wanchai, Hong Kong
Island
Dewali Celebration, the Hindu Temple Festival, Hong Kong Island

The Muslim community’s Mosque in Wanchai, Hong Kong Island
Community Service Project
15 hours of community service is required to be undertaken in Kwun Tong
District in Collaboration with the Center for Harmony and Enhancement of
Ethnic Minority Residents (CHEER). Service is structured in different schemes,
including: Serving the South Asian community in Kwun Tong District as home
mentors, after school homework and personal growth tutors, or outing guardians.
Schedule is to be determined. Students are required to submit a report.
Grading
Class and tutorial Presentation
100
Final Examination
200
Fieldtrip and Report
100
Community Service Project and Report
100
_________________________________________________________
Total
500
Class Topics and Readings
1.
Course Introduction
(A) BASIC MEANINGS OF COMMUNITY
2.
The Meaning of Community
Some of the historical expression of community in Western thought and
politics are discussed
Reading:
Gerard Delanty. Community.
and recovery.”
3.
Chapter 1: “Community as an idea: loss
Community, Society and Culture
Discuss the idea of community in classical sociology and anthropology,
especially around debates on the decline of community with the coming of
modernity.
Reading:
Gerard Delanty. Community.
myths of modernity.”
Chapter 2: “Community and society:
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(A) CULTURE AND ETHNOGRAPHIC COMMUNITY RESEARCH
4.
The Concepts of Culture and Identity
Explore the concepts of culture and identity in anthropological literature.
Reading:
Garrick Bailey and James Peoples, “Chapter 2: Culture,” Introduction to
Cultural Anthropology. (Belmont, CA.: West/Wadsworth), pp. 15-25.
5.
Methods of Ethnographic Research
Learn and practice ethnographic fieldwork research methods.
Reading:
Garrick Bailey and James Peoples, “Chapter 4: Studying Culture:
Approaches and Methods,” Introduction to Cultural Anthropology.
(Belmont, CA.: West/Wadsworth),. pp. 60-67.
(B) CONTEMPORARY ISSUES OF COMMUNITY STUDIES
6.
Urban Community Studies
Discuss the theme of local community in the Chicago School approaches
and in more recent urban social theory.
Reading:
Gerard Delanty. Community.
and belonging.”
7.
Chapter 3: “Urban community: Locality
Political Community and Citizenship
Tackle the question of belonging as an expression of citizenship and the
resurgence of community in communitarian thought.
Reading:
Gerard Delanty. Community. Chapter 4: “Political community:
Communitarianism and citizenship.”
8.
Community and Multiculturalism
Investigate the issues of multiculturalism and the conflict of different
conceptions of cultural community.
Reading:
Gerard Delanty. Community.
Varieties of multiculturalism.”
9.
Chapter 5: “Community and difference:
Community and the Politics of Identity
Discuss the emergence of radical kinds of community as associated with
social movements. The idea of communication communities is explored.
Reading:
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Gerard Delanty. Community. Chapter 6: “Communities of dissent: The
idea of communication communities.”
10.
Postmodernity and Community
Discuss the main postmodern theories of community and explore the idea of
community beyond unity.
Reading:
Gerard Delanty. Community.
Community beyond unity.”
Chapter 7: “Postmodern community:
11. Globalization and Communities
Introduce the question of cosmopolitan community beyond the nation-state
in the context of globalization.
Reading:
Gerard Delanty. Community. Chapter 8: “Cosmopolitan community:
Between the local and the global.”
12. Virtual Communities
Explore how technologically mediated forms of interaction constitute
different forms of communities.
Reading:
Gerard Delanty. Community.
as communication.”
Chapter 9: “Virtual community: Belonging
(C) CASE STUDIES FOR TUTORIAL SESSIONS
Book chapters and articles will be assigned for presentation and discussion in
tutorial sessions.
Tutorial Session Topics
Traditional Village Communities: The Case of the Man Lineage in New
Territories, Hong Kong.
Reading:
James Watson (1975) “Chapter 2: The Setting.” In Emigration and
the Chinese Lineage: The Mans in Hong Kong and London, pp. 9-29.
Berkeley, CA: The Center for Chinese Studies, University of California
Press.
Emigration and Communal Tradition: The Case of the Man Lineage in New
Territories, Hong Kong.
Reading:
James Watson (1975) “Chapter 10: Emigration and the Preservation of
Tradition.” In Emigration and the Chinese Lineage: The Mans in
Hong Kong and London, pp. 199-218. Berkeley, CA: The Center for
Chinese Studies, University of California Press.
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Immigrants from Mainland China
Reading:
Siu, Helen F. (2005) “ ‘Hong Kongers’ and ‘New Immigrants’”. Hong
Kong Journal, http://www.hkjournal.org/archive/2009_summer/4.htm,
retrieved 4 August 2011.
Migrants from India in Hong Kong
Reading:
Caroline Plüss (2005). "Constructing Globalized Ethnicity: Migrants
from India in Hong Kong". International Sociology 20 (2): 201–224.
South Asian Muslims in Hong Kong
Reading:
Weiss, Anita M. (July 1991). "South Asian Muslims in Hong Kong:
Creation of a 'Local Boy' Identity". Modern Asian Studies 25 (3):
417–53.
Emigration Identity
Reading:
Chan, Kwok Bun. 1997. “A Family Affair: Migration, Dispersal, and
the Emergent Identity of the Chinese Cosmopolitan.” Diaspora. 6:2, pp.
195-213.
Chinese Transnationalism and Flexible Citizenship
Reading:
Ong, Aihwa. 1999. “The Pacific Shuttle: Family, Citizenship, and
Capital Circuits.” Flexible Citizenship: The Cultural Logics of
Transnationality. Durham: Duke University.
Politics of Foreign Talents
Reading:
Brenda Yeoh & Shirlena Huang. 2004. "Foreign talent" in our midst,
new challenges to sense of community and ethnic relations in
Singapore. In Lai Ah Eng, ed., Beyond rituals and riots : ethnic
pluralism and social cohesion in Singapore. Singapore : Eastern
Universities Press.
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