Program

Master of Arts in Chinese History and Culture

The Master of Arts in Chinese History and Culture is a two-year program. Students are required to take eight compulsory courses , one elective course and one project report.

• Objectives

The main objectives of the MA Program in Chinese History and Culture are to serve the local high school teachers exclusively, allowing them, mostly via intensive lectures, interactive class discussions, and creative presentations, to advance and update their knowledge of Chinese history and culture, enhance their capability of appreciating and disseminating the achievements of the Chinese civilization, strengthen their skill and foundation for independent studying and excellent teaching of Chinese history and culture, as well as promote via them the affection for and identity with the Chinese civilization among Macao’s youth community.

Admission Requirements

1. Follow the general admission regulations and requirements of the University. Please refer to Graduate School website: Regular Admission to Master’s Degree & Postgraduate Certificate / Diploma Programmes of 2018/2019 (https://www.umac.mo/grs/cn/admissions_regular.php).
2. Admission will be in accordance with the University Admission Rules on MA degree in Chinese. In addition, the MA students must have a BA degree in History, Literature, Geography, Education, Communication, Sociology, Chinese or a relevant field.

Duration of Study：2 academic years

Medium of Instruction：Chinese

• Intended Program Learning Outcomes

The program’s learning outcomes could be measured by the following criteria:

1. The students would demonstrate their solid knowledge and effective skill by class exams and presentations to well teach the course of Chinese history and culture at Macao’s elementary and high schools by the time of graduation, which could be reflected by their self-reflection, or the report and comments from colleagues or supervisor at their working unit;
2. The students would display the progression of their research and writing capability of the learned subject demonstrated by their homework, classroom works and project report;
3. The students would develop an effective and well thought-out pedagogy for teaching Chinese history and culture for their own students, as well as the sustaining capability of independent research and self-taught of the subject, which shall be mainly proved by their project report;
4. The graduates, if working at local schools, would be able to effectively help their students in learning the knowledge of Chinese history and culture as well as their learning capability, which could be reflected by the comments from their students or colleagues;
5. With their enhanced reading and writing Chinese as well as knowledge of Chinese history and culture, the graduates would encounter no major problem in working at museum, library, government, organizations, research institutes, etc., which shall be seen from the comment or report from their employer or colleagues.

•      Study Plan

     First Year

                                                                                                      Total: 30

Required total of credits for the Master Program: 30

• Course Descriptions

• Introduction of Chinese History and Culture

The course is the foundational course for the program. It introduces students the existing literature on studying Chinese history and culture as well as the major theories and methodologies for the subject, allowing them to have the basic knowledge of the subject, which shall guide them to study the subject with a sound foundation and an appropriate approach and from an advanced starting point.

• Seminar on Chinese Classics

The course, via carefully studying the existing Chinese classics including, e.g., “Four Books and Five Classics,” “Twenty Four Histories,” writings by Lao Zi and Zhuang Zi, “Yangming’s Philosophy of Mind,” etc., shall cultivate students’ capability of reading and understanding Chinese classical writings, help them accurately grasp the core values of Chinese traditional culture, and guide them along with a critical and cautious thinking line and other related historical materials to analyze and decode the first hand historical texts, truly learning Chinese history and traditional culture by solid historical evidence and deconstructing texts.

• Ancient Chinese Intellectual History

This course is to trace the development of Chinese thoughts and intellectual activities, from the ancient time to the premodern time with a focus on the periods of Tang, Song and Ming, and to show the evolving ideas and diverging theories of the core Chinese thoughts and philosophies along the change of social and political circumstance. It will try to find the lasting fundamental elements of traditional Chinese thoughts, no matter how their discourses and expressions on surface differed, as well as their advancement and continuity.

• The Intangible and Spiritual Civilization of Traditional China

Focusing on the intangible civilization and spiritual civilization of traditional China, the course will help students learn about all kinds of traditional Chinese intangible arts and culture as well as artistic and cultural creativities, such as literature, music, dance, drama, painting, craftwork, folk custom, etc., to broadly and deeply grasp the spiritual and moral dimension and wisdom of China, various historical situations and delicate and emotional aspects of the complicated human experiences displayed and passed on by Chinese intangible civilization, which have been hardly expressed by official documents.

• Chinese History Reflected by Arts and Literature

The course will use ancient and modern arts and literature to teach students Chinese history, training them to read historical messages and hidden truths from images, artifacts and unofficial writings and to see the emotional and delicate aspects of human experiences as well as the historical context of ancient Chinese arts and literature.

• The Major Transformations in Chinese History

The course will choose the major topics in Chinese history, such as the First Emperor Qin who unified China, the restoration and decline of Ming and Qing, etc., to describe major changes in Chinese institutions, traditions, and society during the different historical phases, the main phenomena and features of Chinese history, and the historical legacies, so that the students could learn about the main issues and direction of Chinese history, the causes for revolutions and reforms, namely where China is from and where China is moving toward, as well as the historical mission of the Chinese people nowadays.

• Macao in Chinese History

The course will trace the activities of Western missionaries and businessmen in Macao and their impact on China via Macao since the sixteenth century. It will measure the historical implications and effects of Sino-Western interactions through Macao during the same period and investigate the role of Macao in modern Chinese history, especially during the wartimes and revolutionary times, as well as the influence the major historical events of the mainland brought to Macao.

• Chinese Literature and Culture in Modern Transition

The course will portray the transition of Chinese literature and culture in modern time, and explain the causes to such a change. It will examine the profound impact of the literary and cultural transformation on China, with a focus on the major intellectual debates, advancement and divergence, to find their relationship with the political and social development.

• Topics in Chinese Language

The course will teach and train students to accurately and skillfully read classical Chinese language through practice, strengthen their writing capability with modern Chinese language, focusing on correcting typical errors that often occurred in using Chinese language, in terms of grammar, punctuation, writing styles, way of expression, etc. It will also introduce Xu Shen’s study on Chinese characters and teach students about how to see the social and cultural and implications deeply contained in linguistic expressions, as well as the subtlety, depth, richness and the enormous power and effect of Chinese language as the carrier of a culture.

• Pedagogical Seminar: Curricular Design on Teaching Chinese History, Culture and Language

This is a pedagogical seminar, focusing on the curricular design and the method of teaching Chinese history, culture or language for the students of elementary and high schools. It will use class discussions and presentations to analyze and solve the most common problems in teaching the subject, technically, culturally and socially, and train and guide students to make curricular design for the course of “Chinese History,” “Chinese Culture” or “Chinese language,” and strengthen their teaching capability and skill through practice, making a well-designed, very practical and well-suited curricular design for the courses.

• Project Report

Students, guided and supervised by individual instructor on a person-to-person basis, are required to independently and individually complete a research project on Chinese history and culture as well as the pedagogy for teaching that subject with an in-depth report.They shall apply the knowledge and the research methods of Chinese history and culture they learned to enhancing and strengthening their capability of doing research project and writing academic report, as well as designing courses and pedagogy for teaching the subject. The main assignment and final product of this course is a project report on one of the learned subjects.

• Application Procedure

Applicant shall submit the application through the online registration system of the University of Macau (https://isw.umac.mo/naweb_grs/faces/index.jspx)

• Tuition Fee

Please refer to the Graduate School website for the Tuition Fee Scheme.

• University Almanac and Important Dates

Please refer to the Graduate School website for the University Almanac and Important Dates.