Student  Organizations

   SYSU Debate Team

SYSU Debate Team Wins Champion at the 6^th International Varsity Debate Competition 

Expectation and Ambition

On Sep. 15^th, the vice secretary Chen Weilin and the vice president Xu Yuantong convened a meeting in Room 516 Zhongshan Building to boost the morale of the school’s debating team just before their trip to Beijing. Chen Weilin praised the delegation as the best combination and cheered on the members to do their best, while Xu Yuantong cited a famous poem by Du Fu to encourage them to debate with gentlemanship and flexibility in strategy, to argue with smile and to convince with reasoning. The chief coach, professor Ren Jiantao, gave a brief introduction to the debate team, the match schedule and their expected goals. Xue Le, the captain of the team, said that all team members appreciated very much the opportunity to represent Sun Yat-sen University and China to take part in this contest, and expressed their determination to go all out to demonstrate the salience of SYSU students, the excellence of mainland students.

Getting off on the Right Foot

In the preliminary contest on Sep.20^th and the semifinal on Sep.23^th, our team brought into full play their debating style characterized by gentleness and preciseness. During the preliminary contest against Freiberg University, both sides debated methodically and clearly on the topic Whether the Network is Illusionary in a spirit of friendly communication. Although there are two debaters of non-Chinese origin in Freiberg University’s delegation, our debaters overcame language difficulty and won with an overwhelming 878-809 lead to qualify a place in semifinals.

In the semifinal against National University of Singapore, our representatives introduced humor into the debate on “Who is More Fortunate, the One Giving Love or the One Being Loved” while maintaining their former style. With wisdom in analyzing and confidence in answering, our debating team scored 913 points, the highest score since the opening of this tournament, taking a 29-point lead to be qualified for the final.

What needs mentioning is the alteration to the seat arrangement. A seat for coach is placed next to the debaters so that he can tutor his team on the spot. Professor Ren Jiantao, the chief coach, played a positive role in these two battles by communicating with the debaters in time and making out situational strategies.  

Winning Champion in Beijing with Great Courage

In the final on Sep.26^th which was staged in CCTV’S 800 sq. m broadcast studio, we defeated Taiwan's Shih Hsin University with a narrow victory at 931-930 and won the championship of this tournament.

The topic to debate for this time is Favorable / Adverse Circumstances Is Advantageous to People’s Growing-up. For the third time, we took a role as the supporting side by drawing lots, which has been maintained throughout this competition.

In the debate, our four representatives all impressed the audience deeply with their individual characteristics: Zhang Jun’s perceptual and rational argument-presentation, Huang Lei’s incisive refutation, Ma Weiwei’s quick-witted questioning and answering, as well as Xue Le’s composed summarization. As long tested veterans, debaters from Taiwan's Shih Hsin University also did a very good job in the final, the No. 3 debator Huang Zhizhong in particular, who won the audience’s applause repeatedly with his silver tongue together with his sense of humor and was awarded as “the Best Debater” of this tournament.

Professor Yang Zhenning, a famous scholar and Nobel Prize winner, made comments after the match. By talking about his undergraduate study in Southwest United University and his further study in USA, he expressed his views on the debated topic, receiving hearty rounds of applause with his humor and preeminent conversation style.

All the competing teams were divided into two groups in this contest. The winners in the other group are Columbia University from the United States and Moscow State Institute of International Relations, carrying off the first prize and the second prize respectively. 

The members of SYSU Debate Team include:

Consultant:       Liang Qingyin, Zhu Kongjun

Chief Coach:      Ren Jiantao

Coach:           Zhao Guodu, Liu Xing

Leader:           Guo Yaping

Vice Leaders:      Ruan Yingdong, Zhang Zhe

Debaters:         Xue Le, Ma Weiwei, Huang Lei, Zhang Jun

Alternate debaters:  Lin Han, Qiu Chen, Guo Ping, Luo Bin, Li Yuan, Tang Liang, Li Xiaoyu (Zhang Zhe, from Youth League Committee)