DSE Chinese Literature Syllabus: Papers, SBA and Study Tips

Chinese Literature is an elective subject in the senior secondary Chinese Language Education key learning area, and its curriculum and assessment follow the Chinese Literature Curriculum and Assessment Guide (Secondary 4 – 6) jointly prepared by the Curriculum Development Council and the Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority. It is not simply a matter of reading a few more classical texts: the curriculum runs on two main lines, literary appreciation and criticism and literary creation, supported by basic knowledge of literature, and it requires students both to read works closely and completely and to write their own works using the techniques they have learned.

In curriculum terms the subject is planned to take up about 10% of total senior secondary lesson time, and the learning content has three components:Literary appreciation and criticism (reading poetry, ci, qu, fu, prose, fiction and drama from classical and modern genres, and training the four levels of feeling, understanding, appreciation and criticism);literary creation (writing poetry, prose, fiction and drama in different genres, moving from fragment writing to whole pieces, and presented concretely through the three creative-writing tasks of the SBA);basic knowledge of literature (the origins, development and subject matter of genres, their basic features and main techniques, the style of representative writers and works, and the terms commonly used in literary criticism and creative writing); the three are interlinked, and basic knowledge should be taught through works rather than in isolation.

The two main lines in fact reinforce each other: only when you can identify a work’s technique can you write with technique of your own, and once you have written, you read other works with a sharper sense of why they are written that way. The curriculum document states the order plainly — appreciation first, creation second; fragment writing first, whole-piece writing second — and that order is itself the most economical route through the subject.

It is worth noting that assessment combines a public examination with school-based assessment, andincludes school-based assessment (creative writing, 15%), unlike subjects examined only by public examination: Paper 1 Literary Creation carries 25% and Paper 2 Literary Appreciation 60%, both written papers of 2 hours each; the SBA is marked by the subject teacher, and candidates must complete creative-writing tasks in at least two of the four genres — prose, poetry, fiction and drama — submitting the marks of three tasks. Private candidates are not required to take the SBA and are assessed entirely on the public examination.

The most common misunderstanding is that Chinese Literature equals Chinese Language plus a few classical texts. It in fact has a clearly defined curriculum and assessment: 28 prescribed works studied in full, appreciation that must be evidenced from the text, creation that must use identifiable techniques, and an SBA whose three tasks only accumulate if you start early.

Literary appreciation and criticism is the feeling, analysis, enjoyment and judgement of a work’s content and artistic form. It is the main target of Paper 2 Literary Appreciation, worth 60% of the subject, and it trains in a clear sequence: feel first, then understand, then appreciate, then judge — and each level can be turned into a concrete reading action.

Literary creation is the art of expressing a distinctive response to life or to the world in language. In the HKDSE it is examined both in Paper 1 Literary Creation (25%) and through the SBA creative-writing tasks (15%), 40% in total — the part of the subject most often overlooked and the part that most often separates candidates.

The 28 prescribed works look separate, but the papers keep returning to a few shared questions. The six threads below are the most economical way to turn the works from one text after another into a working framework; each deserves a one-page note in three columns — definition, example, effect.

Assessment combines a public examination and school-based assessment: the public examination carries 85% (Paper 1 25%, Paper 2 60%) and the SBA 15%, andincludes school-based assessment. Under the HKEAA 2026 HKDSE Chinese Literature Assessment Framework, both papers are written papers of 2 hours and both are compulsory; private candidates are not required to take the SBA and are assessed entirely on the public examination.

The subject has six assessment objectives: the ability to feel, understand and appreciate literary works; the ability to create works in different literary genres; knowledge of Chinese literature; interest, attitudes and habits in studying literature; aesthetic sensibility and moral feeling; and a sense of responsibility towards family, country and the world. In other words it examines both deep reading and good writing, and behind both is the same sensitivity to language.

The first level is feeling and understanding. After reading a work, can you say what it says, how it says it and why it is said that way; can you understand key words and the theme accurately rather than improvising from impression. Marks are lost here most invisibly, because the answer looks as if something has been written while never touching the text.

The second level is appreciation and comparison. Can you name the specific technique (image, contrast, symbol, plain description, allusion), explain its function in this text, and set it against another work. High-scoring answers usually have one clear point of comparison rather than two separate statements.

The third level is judgement and expression. Can you make an evidenced judgement on the thoughts and feelings of the work and on its artistic achievement, and write it in accurate, fluent, well-ordered prose. Marking rewards a structure of argument — thesis, evidence, conclusion — not whole paragraphs lifted from a textbook.

Chinese Literature is an elective, not a subject every candidate has to take, but for students who read and write willingly the return is direct. The three practical considerations parents and students raise most often are set out below.

Results in Chinese Literature rarely turn on how many works you have read, but on how deeply you read them and how concretely you write. The four points below are the lost marks our tutors see most often, each with the strategy that answers it.

• Official resources—The EDB Chinese Literature Curriculum and Assessment Guide (Secondary 4 – 6), jointly prepared by the Curriculum Development Council and the HKEAA and revised in 2025 for implementation in Secondary 4 in 2025/26, which sets out the curriculum framework, suggested learning focuses and the list of prescribed works; the HKEAA Chinese Literature assessment framework and its Examination Reports are the most direct reference for question types and marking.
• Further reading—Syllabus guides on this site:DSE Chinese History Syllabus, DSE English Language Syllabus, and DSE History Syllabus.
• A tip for parents—The most common lost mark in Chinese Literature is not failure to understand but writing that stays vague. Ask your child to write three sentences after every work: what it says, by what technique, and where I think it is good (or not good enough). Three works a week builds enough comparative material in half a year, and it works better than memorising fifty pages of notes before the exam.

Note: The information above is for reference only. Please consult professional education institutions for details.

This article was initially drafted and organised with AI. Editor / Professor Chan Kwok-wai,

Managing Editor / Kong Yee-leung