Chinese Language and Culture Courses
CHIN9501 - 9508: Mandarin (Mandarin Oriention)
CHIN9511 - 9512: Cantonese (Cantonese Orientation)
CHIN21-22: Chinese culture course (Culture Course Orientation)

Mandarin Orientation

Student Voice

Mandarin Orientation (for CHIN9501-08)

Application Procedure (for students who have successfully completed any of the CHIN9501-08 courses)

I. If you have successfully completed any of the CHIN9501-9508 courses at HKU, your application will be accepted if you complete the following application procedure:

(i) Register through the SIS as early as possible; (late applications will have lower enrollment priority);

(ii) If you wish to obtain approval, you must: (a) attend a course briefing session in person on Tuesday, September 1. If you do not have a Chinese class on Tuesday, please attend the session via Zoom. The time slot(s) and Zoom meeting information will be uploaded to Moodle and/or shared by your class teacher; and (b) submit a hard copy of the "Statement of Current Level of Proficiency" form to your class teacher during the session, or, you may fill out the form and submit it to the teachers at the designated office (Your class teacher will announce the time and venue).

(iii) After completing steps (i) and (ii), you will receive confirmation of your application approval following class on September 3 or 4. Your status will remain ‘Pending’ until you complete this final step in class on September 3 or 4. Any application that is missing any of the steps (i) to (iii) by September 4 will be marked ‘Not Approved.’ (**If you will be outside Hong Kong on September 3 or 4 and are unable to attend class, please contact the instructor of your registered class regarding the special arrangement. Otherwise, your application will not be considered.)

Application Procedure (for NEW registrants)

II. If you are a NEW registrant (i.e., a full-time UG and exchange student who hasn't previously taken any of the CHIN9501-9508 courses at HKU) and wish to apply for CHIN9501-07 in the first semester, please complete the following application procedure:

(i) Register through the SIS as early as possible; (late applications will have lower enrollment priority);

(ii) Complete the placement test, including the written and oral sections, in person at the assigned times*, and attend a course briefing session in person on Tuesday, September 1. If you do not have a Chinese class on Tuesday, please attend the session via Zoom. The time slot(s) and Zoom meeting information will be uploaded to Moodle and/or shared by your course instructor.

* Note: All new registrants (including these who have no prior knowledge of Chinese) who have registered through SIS will be informed of the venues and times for the written section by August 26, 2026, and for the oral section by August 31, 2026 via HKU email and/or Moodle. Please check your HKU portal regularly.

(iii) After completing steps (i) and (ii) in person at the assigned times:

📩 If the course is suitable for you, we will send you a message via HKU Portal or Moodle email. However, if you wish to obtain approval, you must attend your registered class in person on September 3 or 4. Any application that is missing any of the steps (i) to (iii) by September 4 will be marked ‘Not Approved.’
OR,

📩 If the course you have registered for is not appropriate for your level, you will be informed by the teachers and/or via email of the class that best suits you as early as possible, and no later than September 3. You will then need to register for the new class on SIS when the system is open and attend the new class according to the schedule. If you don’t receive any information from the teachers, or via email, or you fail to register for the new course online by September 3, please attend the new class you should register for, on September 3 or 4. (You may find the timetable through the link: International | Chinese Language Centre). If you wish to obtain approval, you must attend the class in person on September 3 or 4. Any application that is missing any of the steps (i) to (iii) by September 4 will be marked ‘Not Approved.’

* Please note that:

(a) We will not be able to reply to any individual inquiry about your application result, the status of the application process, the reason for disapproval, or appeal for reconsideration after being disapproved.
(b) Applications will only be considered if steps (i) to (iii) are fully completed by the assigned dates.
(c) In order to raise your enrollment priority, please DON’T register for CHIN9501 if you have prior knowledge of Chinese language (including Cantonese and any Chinese dialects).
(d) If you will not be in Hong Kong from September 1 to 4 due to valid reasons, please contact the instructor of the class you have registered for online and submit the supporting documents via email as early as possible by August 20. Otherwise, your application will not be considered.
(e) Students who apply for Semester 1 courses are not guaranteed a seat if they complete the in-person written and oral tests after September 2, 2026 (Wednesday).

Timetable

2nd Semester 2025-2026

Low-enrollment class(es) will be cancelled during the add/drop period.

Textbook Purchase:
CHIN9501-02: The Rudiments of Mandarin at HKUP Bookshop at G/F, Run Run Shaw Heritage House, Centennial Campus

CHIN9503-06: Please click HERE for more detailed information.

Cantonese Orientation

Application procedures (CHIN9511-22)

(i) register through the SIS (Student Information System) as early as possible (late application lower enrollment priority), and

(ii) submit the completed Statement of Current Level of Proficiency in Chinese Language (For students registering for CHIN9511, 9512 and 9521only) or Statement of Current Level of Proficiency in Chinese Language and Culture (For students registering for CHIN9522) to the course teacher in the first lesson, and

(iii) take the placement test (if any) in the first lesson.

Textbook Purchase:

CHIN9511: Cantonese for Everyone (Jyutping version) at Joint Publishing (H.K.): Shop 111, Level 1, The Westwood, 8, Belcher's Street, Sai Wan (MTR HKU Station Exit C2)

Culture Course Orientation

CHIN9522 Orientation

CHIN9522 Exploration of Major Cultural Themes across Chinese History (6 credits)

1. CHIN9501 Chinese as a Foreign Language I (6 credits) (old course title: CHIN1501)

This intensive course is intended for international undergraduate students, exchange and visiting students who have no prior knowledge of Chinese language. It aims to build a solid foundation for students wishing to go on to more advanced levels of language study and in-depth study of Chinese culture and society. It familiarizes students with the phonetic system of Putonghua, i.e. Hanyu Pinyin System. Students will learn pronunciation, tones, and basic patterns so as to speak short sentences and carry basic

conversations on the familiar topics accurately and clearly. Students with no prior knowledge of Chinese characters must master 100 commonly used simplified Chinese characters (Hanzi, 汉字)*. The course emphasizes overall development in all four language skills in addition to Chinese word processing.

*Note: Chinese characters will not be specifically taught in class but will be an integrated part of the course. Students with no prior knowledge of Chinese characters must study 100 commonly used simplified Chinese characters on their own by following the learning plan and e-learning materials via the links posted on Moodle.

Assessment: 100% coursework

CHIN9501 Course Outline

3. CHIN9503 Chinese as a Foreign Language III (6 credits) (old course title: CHIN2501)

This intensive course is intended for foreign learners who have completed CHIN9502 or have attained an equivalent level of competency. It aims to increase students’ communicative and linguistic competence in listening, speaking, reading, writing and translating. It also provides in-depth study of Chinese culture and modern Chinese society. So CHIN9503 give students a solid foundation of communication ability to go to higher levels in Chinese studying. Students will learn these techniques through analyzing short passages and presentations for features of successful communication and practicing these through a variety of activities, including in-class discussions, presentations, role playing, peer and teacher feedback on both speaking practice and written assignments.

Prerequisite: “CHIN9502 Chinese as a foreign language II” or equivalent

CHIN9503 Course Outline

2. CHIN9502 Chinese as a Foreign Language II (6 credits) (old course title: CHIN1502)

This intensive course is intended for foreign learners who have completed CHIN9501 or who can demonstrate equivalent competence in the placement test. A greater emphasis will be placed on oral drills and listening comprehension. Upon the completion of the course, students should be able to write an essay of 300 characters.

Students will also be exposed to various aspects of Chinese culture and history in learning the origins of Chinese characters and idioms.

Prerequisite: “CHIN9501 Chinese as a foreign language I” or equivalent
Assessment: 100% coursework

CHIN9502 Course Outline

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4. CHIN9504 Chinese as a Foreign Language IV (6 credits) (old course title: CHIN2502)

This intensive course is intended for foreign learners who have completed CHIN9503 or have attained an equivalent level of competency. It aims to increase students’ communicative and linguistic competence in listening, speaking, reading, writing and translating. It also provides in-depth study of Chinese culture, geography of China, Chinese history and modern Chinese society. So CHIN9504 give students a solid foundation of communication ability to go to higher levels in Chinese studying. Students will learn these techniques through analyzing short passages and presentations for features of successful communication and practicing these through a variety of activities, including in-class discussions, presentations, role playing, peer and teacher feedback on both speaking practice and written assignments.

Prerequisite: “CHIN9503 Chinese as a foreign language III” or equivalent

CHIN9504 Course Outline

5. CHIN9505 Chinese as a Foreign Language V (6 credits) (old course title: CHIN3501)

This intensive course is intended for international undergraduate students, exchange and visiting students who have completed CHIN9504 or have attained equivalent competence in the language. It aims at enhancing students’ communicative competence, i.e. listening, speaking, reading and writing. Students will be exposed to Chinese society and culture through a variety of topical discussions and different audiovisual media including films (movies)and Vlog.

Students are required to write compositions of 350-400 Chinese characters, and use short phrases/words/sentence structures learnt in class to further strengthen their knowledge of the Chinese language and culture. This course will help intermediate-high language learners broaden and deepen their grammar and vocabulary knowledge, fill the gap between spoken sound and written word, and strengthen their practical Mandarin language skills.

Prerequisite: “CHIN9504 Chinese as a foreign language IV” or equivalent

CHIN9505 Course Outline

6. CHIN9506 Chinese as a Foreign Language VI (6 credits) (old course title: CHIN3502)

This intensive course is intended for foreign learners who have completed CHIN9505 or have attained an equivalent level of competency. It aims to increase students’ communicative and linguistic competence in listening, speaking, reading, writing, and translating. It also provides in-depth study of Chinese culture and society.

Students will learn these through a variety of activities including in-class discussions and conversations, completion of tasks and assignments, peer and teacher feedback on both speaking practice and written assignments.

Prerequisite: “CHIN9505 Chinese as a foreign language V” or equivalent
Assessment: 100% coursework

CHIN9506 Course Outline

7. CHIN9507 Chinese as a Foreign Language VII (6 credits) (old course title: CHIN4501/ CHIN3503) (To be Offered in the 1st semester, 2025-26 ONLY)

This intensive course is intended for international undergraduate students, exchange and visiting students who have attained equivalent competence to HSK level 6 or New HSK level 4. It aims at enhancing students’ communicative competence, specifically targeting at speaking, reading and writing. Students will be exposed to Chinese society and culture through a greater variety of topical discussions and different audiovisual media include films (movies), television, and Vlog. Students are required to write essays of 800 or more Chinese characters, and use short phrases/words/sentence structures learnt in class to further strengthen their knowledge of the Chinese language and culture. This course will help advanced language learners enhance their lexical and syntactic knowledge, as well as improve their writing and presentation skills through live practice and feedback through training.

Prerequisite: “CHIN9506 Chinese as a foreign language VI” or equivalent
Assessment: 100% coursework

CHIN9507 Course Outline

8. CHIN9508 Chinese as a Foreign Language VIII (6 credits) (old course title: CHIN4502/ CHIN3504) (To be Offered in the 2nd semester, 2025-26 ONLY)

This intensive course is for those foreign students who have completed CHIN9507 or CHIN9506, or attained equivalent competence to Chinese Proficiency Test (HSK) Level 4-5. The Students will be exposed to some hot topics on Chinese society and culture through the study of the textbook and Chinese news articles. Students will write a topical report and express opinions on some selected social and media topics to strengthen comprehension and writing abilities. Presentation and in-class discussion are designed for students to improve speaking and listening skills. This course will teach 300 new phrases on top of about 2000 characters accumulated in previous levels, with the focus on Chinese news words.

Prerequisite: “CHIN9507 Chinese as a foreign language VII” or equivalent
Assessment: 100% coursework

CHIN9508 Course Outline

9. CHIN9511 Cantonese as a Foreign Language I (6 credits) (old course title: CLDC0001/ CHIN1511)

This intensive course is intended for foreign learners who have no prior knowledge of Cantonese. The course introduces students to present-day Cantonese, with an emphasis on learning correct pronunciation through the Jyutping phonetic romanization transcription system and basic structure. It aims to develop fundamental oral communication skills through a variety of situational conversations in a highly interactive classroom.

Assessment: 100% coursework

CHIN9511 Course Outline

10. CHIN9512 Cantonese as a Foreign Language II

(6 credits)

This intensive course is designed for international undergraduate students, exchange and visiting students (Non‐Heritage Learners) who have completed CHIN9511 or who can demonstrate equivalent competence in the placement test. It aims at strengthening students’ mastery of the phonetic romanization transcription, the Jyutping system, and at enhancing their competence in expressing themselves in the language. A greater emphasis will be placed on oral drills and listening comprehension. More practical sentence patterns and a large range of useful words and expressions related to various aspects of life will be introduced as well.

Prerequisite: “CHIN9511 Cantonese as a foreign language I” or equivalent
Assessment: 100% coursework

CHIN9512 Course Outline

12. CHIN9521 The Fundamentals of Chinese Characters
(6 credits) (old course title: CHIN1521)

This intensive course is intended for international students whose mother tongue is not Chinese. It is designed to introduce the origins and evolution of Chinese characters. The formation and the structure of Chinese characters will be emphasized to help students to break the puzzles of Chinese written form. This course also familiarizes students with the distinctive features of the Chinese characters as a means to introduce them to the unique characteristics of the Chinese language and culture. Students will be equipped with the writing skills to copy any Chinese characters in correct stroke-order and will be familiar with the commonly used components of combined characters after this course. The course will teach up to 220 Chinese characters and about 350 compound words. Students are taught how to use Chinese dictionaries in order to continue learning Chinese characters by themselves.

Assessment: 100% coursework

CHIN9521 Course Outline

13. CHIN9522 Exploration of Major Cultural Themes across Chinese History (6 credits) (old course title: CHIN1522) (To be Offered in the 1st semester, 2025-26 ONLY)

A history and culture course that familiarizes students with China and its past, approached from non-traditional perspectives. The course introduces international students to Chinese history, schools of thoughts, cultural themes and achievements in Chinese civilization; highlights differences and similarities between Chinese and other cultures; stimulates students’ interest in deeper understanding of China, its people, its history and its culture in the global context. Students are required to make presentations on assigned topics.

Assessment: 100% coursework

CHIN9522 Course Outline

11. CHIN9513 Cantonese as a Foreign Language III

(6 credits)

This intensive course is designed for international undergraduate students, exchange students and visiting students (non-heritage learners) who have completed CHIN9512 or who can demonstrate equivalent competence through the placement test. It aims at consolidating students’ mastery of the Jyutping phonetic romanization transcription, and at enhancing their ability to express themselves fluently in Cantonese and accurately write messages in Jyutping. The course will concentrate on growth in oral communication and listening comprehension abilities through a wide variety of communication-based assessments and assignments such as Cantonese speaking Tests and oral presentations. Practical sentence patterns and vocabulary will also be introduced.

Prerequisite: “CHIN9512 Cantonese as a foreign language II” or equivalent
Assessment: 100% coursework

CHIN9513 Course Outline

Chinese Language and Culture Courses CHIN9501 - 9508: Mandarin (Mandarin Oriention) CHIN9511 - 9512: Cantonese (Cantonese Orientation) CHIN21-22: Chinese culture course (Culture Course Orientation)

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Chinese Language and Culture Courses
CHIN9501 - 9508: Mandarin (Mandarin Oriention)
CHIN9511 - 9512: Cantonese (Cantonese Orientation)
CHIN21-22: Chinese culture course (Culture Course Orientation)