The Creative and Professional Writing Programme of Hong Kong Baptist University is the first UGC-funded undergraduate programme among Hong Kong tertiary institutions dedicated to creative and professional writing in both Chinese and English.

The Programme emphasizes the following general aims:

• To provide students with a vigorous curriculum to develop creative and professional writing skills in Chinese and English;
• To develop students’ abilities when writing professionally in different genres and contexts to enhance students’ career opportunities;
• To cultivate students to produce original works of fiction, poetry, or nonfiction;
• To enhance students’ cultural literacy which would act as a solid basis for their creative and professional writing;
• To build up their knowledge for self-directed and life-long learning in the world of professional writing and publishing

Unique Features

The Programme carries certain distinguishing characteristics:

• Bilingual Teaching and Learning: Students will read, write and speak in Chinese as well as English, developing their skills in both languages. Bilingual ability enables students to respond to Hong Kong’s specific linguistic environment.
• Interdisciplinarity: All the Creative and Professional Writing courses are designed to ensure that students are exposed to the writing demands and strategies of diverse disciplines, including art criticism, language, literature, history, philosophy, media studies, business and science.

Student Learning Experiences

Writing Internship - The Creative and Professional Writing Programme has designed a required course “Writing Internship” to create opportunities for students to learn by participating in real-life experiences and working for different institutes. The potential internship opportunities include literary agencies, magazine or book publishers, theatre or film groups, non-profit arts organizations, book reviewers, advertising agencies, websites, etc.

Overseas Exchange – The HMW Department is an active participant in the university overseas exchange programme. The Department exchange co-ordinator communicates very well with the International Office to promote this event among HMW students.

Summer Study Tour – The Study Tour is a long-standing tradition of the Department of Humanities and Creative Writing. In the past we made arrangements with Qinghua University to provide a rich learning experience for the students.

Career Opportunities

Not everyone can become a great creative writer, but professional writing always includes a significant creative component. Our society urgently needs writers of all kinds. The professional writing portion of the curriculum, with good infusion of the creative side, can prepare students to work for a great variety of future careers. It goes without saying that graduates with excellent writing skills, both in English and Chinese are of great demand. It not only meets the demand of the market in creative industry, news media, publishing houses, editorship of journals, government offices, non-profit and charity organizations, education sector, etc., but also in business sector, industrial sector, and financial sector. There would be a strong demand for the graduates of this Programme from the education sector that increasingly emphasizes the writing education. The interdisciplinary approach would also build a solid foundation for students to pursue postgraduate studies.

Employers are likely to choose someone who graduated with creative mind with good language and writing skills, because the graduate with a proficiency in languages will takes years to cultivate, and creative mind is greatly in need.

Remarks

Students may have the option of taking an integrated programme by extending their undergraduate study by one year, leading to the award of a bachelor's degree in that Major plus a Diploma in Education.

1) ^Subject to annual review and University's approval.