In the evening of November 20th, the final of the 2016 “TIANFENG SECURITIES” Cup Jinqiu Debate Championship was held as scheduled. All seats were occupied an hour before the competition. This is the biggest debate event in Wuhan University, anticipated by students from all colleges, other universities and alumni travelling from thousands of miles especially for it. The enthusiasm for debate has been a long-lasting tradition in Wuhan University.
Wuhan University has a delicate debate system: Each school has its own team, together they compete for the crown at the Jinqiu Championship every fall. Above them is the WHU Debate Team, which competes in the name of the university in both national and international competitions. Additionally, the English Debate Team, a student-founded club, has also gained popularity and made achievements in recent years.
The winner of 2016 Jinqiu Debate—the history school team and their supporters
The interview with Liu Can and Professor Zhou Xuanyi, respectively the captain and instructor of the WHU Debate Team will help us get a better understanding of WHU debate tradition.
Liu Can: “Debate is the art of speaking”
Liu Can, the present captain of the WHU Debate Team, is a postgraduate from the School of Political and Public Administration. When mentioning him, students in the debate circle will always call him “mother Can” with a friendly smile. “He is a warm and responsible person who you couldn’t help loving”, one of his team members said.
The first time Liu became interested in debating was in a Chinese class during senior high school. One day, his Chinese teacher played a video of the debate competition between Wuhan University and Hong Kong University, in which the topic was “whether money is the root of all evils”. From then on, he has been in love with this art of speaking. After entering university, he stood out from the other candidates for the WHU debate team and became a formal member as he had dreamed. This year, because of his outstanding performance and strong sense of responsibility, he was appointed as captain. “Debating offers a platform where sparks of thinking overflow and the seeds of wisdom sprout in a process in which participants can always find happiness”, said Liu.
Liu Can (second from the right) with his team
Looking back at his experience, Captain Liu said the most impressive competition was the one in the summer of 2014, in which the topic was "Whether Confucianism remains valuable in China's transition period". He said that before the debate, he has been very interested in Chinese traditional culture but never had the opportunity to study it in depth. However, to prepare for the debate, he read a lot of books, consulted teachers and other team members,which greatly expanded his vision and deepened his understanding of Chinese traditional culture.
“Not only that”, he said, “debate training made me an eloquent debater and a good thinker, while taking part in an actual debate made me more receptive to new ideas by seeking common ground while setting aside differences.” Although debating has undoubtedly consumed a lot of time and energy, Liu said that he takes it as a good chance to gain time management skills.
When referring to his own achievements in debating, he owed the most of it to his coach, professor Zhou Xuanyi, and other team members. “Professor Zhou teaches me how to think and organize my language in every match. My team members provided the exact examples to support our argument. Without them, I will never be what I am today", he said.
As a captain, he described his responsibility as organizing academic debate matches and cultivating new debaters. He said that their members have been equipped with certain debate experience before entering the team; therefore, his duty is to help them transit from an ordinary debater to an excellent debater. He considers taking part in real competitions as the best way to make progress. Therefore, under his leadership, the WHU Debate Team has taken part in matches both at home and abroad at least once a week .. Since the second half of this year, through the joint effort of the captain, instructor, and team members, the WHU Debate Team won second runner-up and third runner-up in international competitions, and almost swept all the championships of large-scale events in Central China.
Zhou Xuanyi: “Debate is the basic need of life”
Professor Zhou Xuanyi has been the instructor of the WHU Debate Team since 2006. He is a seasoned WHUer who spent his entire student life from bachelor to PhD in this university. In 1997, when he first stepped onto the campus, a newly founded club—the WHU Debate Association was recruiting members. From then on, Zhou’s life was closely tied to debate.
Professor Zhou speaking at a lecture
Before 1997, debating in Wuhan University was still relatively small in scale. There were only several colleges with debate teams founded by students themselves. No official debate group under the guidance of experts ever existed. The names of WHU debaters were not heard in any competition outside its own campus. However, during that period, International Varsity Debate, a global debating competition for university students had just been introduced to China, which caused a craze among the youth. "Students at our age back then had a pure sense of enthusiasm. We spent days and nights arguing over one debate subject, fully indulged in the joy of brainstorming and the clashing of idea, and forgetting about the realistic life plans that bother today's youth so much," said Zhou. The power of interest pushed Zhou forward on his path. He took part in a series of debating competitions across the campus, through which he gained both experience and reputation.
In 1999, in order to participate in the “Lingyun” Cup National Varsity Debate, Wuhan University summoned up a group of teachers to build the official debate team. Zhou was selected as one of its few exclusive members. Since then, the WHU Debate Team has become a formal organization. In the following years, Zhou witnessed and contributed to the prosperity of WHU debates. In 2000, WHU took part in the “Huangshan” Cup National Varsity Debate, which was the highest debating competition in China at that time. After a month of tough training, WHU defeated over 20 teams from different universities and won first prize. Zhou himself was awarded “The Best Debater”. In 2001, WHU extended their journey to the world, taking part in the International Varsity Debate. Zhou took the stage as the team’s final speaker, and a critical factor in deciding its conclusion. In the final round of the competition, Zhou gave his brilliant statement that “Money is the mother of evil”: “Money is the hotbed of greed. Even the Chinese character ‘Tan’ (‘greed’) contains a part that represents currency. And greed is the nature of humanity that leads to all kinds of evil…” Though the team only got the silver medal that year, their arguments were so classic that there was even a book published on it.
From Zhou's perspective, debate is the basic need of our lives. "Whether you like it or not, we live in a world of disputes. Even if you don't choose to debate, conflicting ideas force you to respond to others. The only way to solve problems is to find out the real question, which demands us to clarify different opinions surrounding it and uncover further facts behind them. Debating helps us do that", said Zhou.
As a teacher, Zhou considers debating the perfect training for college students. It teaches them useful communication skills, so they could convey ideas in a concise and effective way. It fosters the quality of rationalism: critical thinking, reasoning and speaking with evidence. Most importantly, it stands for the value of tolerance." Before the actual debate begins, none of the speakers know which side of the argument they are on, which forces them to think in both perspectives", Zhou said, "What debating shows us is in fact the different possibilities that exists for any particular question. By listening to opposing opinions and thinking from the opponent's perspective, one gains a broader view on a subject, and therefore reaches a thorough understanding: The world is not black and white. We need a tolerant mind to embrace diversity.”
Now Zhou is giving online public courses on debating through NetEase, a major online platform in China. His class is popular with people of all ages and occupations. As a public figure in this field, Zhou carries the name and spirit of WHU debates to a broader space.
photo by Pan Yueran, Liu Can and Internet:
http://www.chnmus.net/hdzt/2015-04/22/content_219857.htm
(Edited by Tang Yedan, Zheng Xinnian, Edmund Wai Man Lai & Hu Sijia)
