competition in Chinese language
A team of Yale students proved to be masters of the craft of oratory — in
the Chinese language — when it won first place recently in the 8th International
Varsity Debate, held in Beijing, China.
Students from all over the world took part in the competition, which has been
held every two years since 1993. The event is organized by China Central Television
(CCTV) and Singapore’s Media Corp. China and Singapore alternate in hosting
the event, which is now recognized as the premiere debate competition in the
Chinese language.
The Yale team took top honors in the non-native speakers category, while the
Zhongnan University of Economics and Law won in the native speakers category.
The Yale team beat students from Oxford in the final round to win the championship.
The top teams advanced following a week of verbal sparring in the Chinese
language.
The second-place winners in the contest were the University of Macao (in the
native Chinese speaking category) and Oxford (non-native speakers category).
Yale’s team — composed of Adam Scharfman ’08, Nick Sedlet ’08,
Austin Woerner ’08 and J.T. Kennedy ’09 — was one of five university
teams whose native language is not Chinese. The topics the team debated over
the course of the contest included whether smoking should be completely or partially
banned in public places, whether bullfighting should be banned in Spain, and
whether institutions of higher education should be easier to be admitted to and
difficult to graduate from or vice versa.
The debates were evaluated by four judges and a 12-person jury. The judges were
drawn from a pool of international Chinese professors, members of the Chinese
media and political figures familiar with China.
The Yale team was allowed to represent the United States in the competition following
the tournament’s first round in October, when it beat teams from Columbia,
Harvard and Princeton universities. Students from Tsinghua University in Beijing
also participated in the first round, which was held in New Haven.
The debate competition is very popular in China and is broadcast for several
weeks on CCTV. This year, there were a record number of non-native competitors,
who came from the United States, the United Kingdom, Russia, Australia, Egypt
and South Korea.
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Campus Notes
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