Networking Arguments

This book features five theme-based units on cross-disciplinary academic English skills, focusing on the needs of first-year undergraduate students. Each unit covers academic writing, reading, and speaking skills. The units progressively take students through the steps needed to complete three common academic assignments: the essay, report, and tutorial discussion. These steps include searching for quality sources, note-taking, establishing a critical stance, formulating evidence-based arguments, synthesizing information from multiple sources, and structuring academic texts. Each unit also provides opportunities for students to analyse texts, apply their critical thinking skills, practise what they have learnt in productive tasks, and reflect upon their progress. This book is aimed at first-time university students. Many of the readings are related to China and a broader Asian context. As such, it appeals to first-year university students in Hong Kong, Mainland China, and Taiwan.

The widely acclaimed films of Wong Kar-wai are characterized by their sumptuous yet complex visual and sonic style. Bettinson argues that Wong’s films—from Days of Being Wild and Chungking Express to In the Mood for Love and The Grandmaster—are permeated by an aesthetic of sensuousness and “disturbance” achieved through techniques such as narrative disruptions, jarring cuts, the blocking of facial access, and other complex strategies. The effect is to jolt the viewer out of complete aesthetic absorption. This tenth-anniversary edition of The Sensuous Cinema of Wong Kar-wai includes a substantial new afterword bringing the story of Wong’s career up to date (including reflections on the mainland Chinese drama Blossoms Shanghai). Bettinson revisits and extends the arguments of the first edition, surveys the recent key debates on Wong’s filmmaking, and introduces fresh lines of critical investigation.