Out of the Cultural Ghetto – an integrated approach to enhance crosscultural understanding in the GE course “Appreciating Masterpieces of Western Culture”

Situated in the cultural and economic hub of Hong Kong, City University of Hong Kong is striving to make its internationalization efforts noticeable as well as promoting pedagogical interaction for students of diverse cultural backgrounds. To enhance students’ understanding of western civilizations, the GE course “Appreciating Masterpieces of Western Culture” examines some of the greatest masters of Western culture with a thematic approach. In the lectures, Prof. Zhang Longxi gives comprehensive introductions to a list of critical ideas in Western history focusing on the Renaissance, the Age of Humanism, the Romantic Movement, and the Modernist Movement, which are supplemented by carefully selected cultural masterpieces. After establishing relationships between social movements and art forms, students are encouraged to reflect critically upon their own context and to identify with forms of artistic expression closest to their own human experience. In the tutorials, students from Asian cultural backgrounds (11from mainland China, 10 from Hong Kong, 1 from Taiwan, 1 from Korea and 1 from Sri Lanka) present their comparison and reflections on both the affinities and differences between Western cultures and their own cultural traditions. Online interactions are also facilitated on the Blackboard e-learning system provided by the university. Such an integrated approach not only enriches the students’ cross-cultural literacy but also prepares them to meet global challenges.