In modern societies "cultural identities" are always considered displayable. Whereas policy-makers are obliged to create cultural policies to turn cultures into public good, private sectors may make profits out of running cultural industries. Adopting a historical approach, this course intends to illustrate how the idea of national or regional identity, as understood in the 20^th/21st centuries, has been shaped from the antiquity to the modern epoch against a global context. It discusses a variety of topics, namely, education, language, migration, minorities, population registration and taxation policies, modern exposition, museum displays, cultural policies formulated by national and international bodies, as well as cultural industries run by private sectors, with a particular focus on Hong Kong and the Mainland of China.