The Creative and Professional Writing Programme is the first UGC-funded undergraduate programme in Hong Kong dedicated to creative and professional writing learning in both the Chinese and English languages. While constituting a major component of knowledge-intensive industries including publishing, editing, advertising, and arts administration, creative writing is also a significant part of the whole-person education to aspire creativity, talent, independent thinking and articulation ability. Our University has been working for years to nurture students’ creativity with the provision of a number of new creativity inspiring academic courses and activities. Given the fact that we have the largest pool of established and well-published authors teaching at the Faculty of Arts among all other local universities, the Creative and Professional Writing Programme is a very unique academic unit with its special offerings.

The Programme emphasizes the following general aims: (1) to provide students with a vigorous curriculum to develop creative and professional writing skills in Chinese and English languages; (2) to develop students’ abilities when writing professionally in different genres and contexts to enhance students’ career opportunities; (3) to cultivate students to produce original works of fiction, poetry, or nonfiction; (4) to enhance students’ cultural literacy which would act as a solid basis for their creative and professional writing; and (5) to build up their knowledge for self-directed and life-long learning in the world of professional writing and publishing.

The practicum of the Creative and Professional Writing Programme has two focuses: one is on creative writing while another one on professional writing. Not everyone will become a poet or a novelist, 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, arts institutes, 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.

The 60 major units of the Programme consist of 42 units of Required Courses and 18 units of courses from the two Major Electives of English and Chinese writing. The Required Courses provide fundamental learning in writing and concepts in aesthetics, theories and ideas in creativity, and cultural differences, in order to enhance students’ intellectual cognition and skills.

Each of the two Major Electives consists of two Modules—one in creative writing and one in professional writing. There are four Modules altogether. Students are required to select at least one course from each of the four Modules, so that they will be trained both in Chinese writing and English writing, and be skilled both in creative and professional writing.