“The meaning of debate is to make you realize that someone in the world lives a life different from yours and reveal to you the reason that they make different choices for the same problems as yours. Debate also tells us not to take a narrow view of world to think we are always right and others are always wrong. Others just live a different life and make different choices. That’s all.”

Haidian Kaiwen Academy takes “criticism” as one of its core values, and criticism is also one of the most needed qualities for internationalized talents in the future as believed by UNESCO.

Debate is a great platform to cultivate critical thinking of the students. Besides participating in the competition, the students can have a full understanding on debates, learn about knowledge on more specialized fields and benefit from improved debating skills, expertise and critical thinking in the future.

This exactly aligns with one of the educational philosophies of Haidian Kaiwen Academy, “heights” --- concerning about students’ growth, providing students with an elevated platform and wishing the students to have a broad international perspective and to constantly soar to new heights in the future.

Slash life?

(Multiple professions, diversified life)

VS

Craftsmanship?

(Dedication is its name.)

Which of the two weighs more is measured by different people in different ways.

At the First Kaiwen Cup Debate, the eloquent debaters comprehensively analyzed the two topics with a keen mind in refined language. Let’s review the highlights of the event!

For the purpose of improving the students’ eloquence and critical thinking, Chinese Language Department of Haidian Kaiwen Academy Secondary School held the debate.

Preliminary contest was held in the Chinese language class of each class, with two to four debaters selected from each class for the cross-grade semi-final. On May 31, 2019, winners of the semi-final gathered in the lecture hall for the final.

The final took “slash life/craftsmanship is more worthy of being pursued” as the topic. The debaters of each team were fully prepared and impressive with quotations and sparkling words in a clear mind.

During the parts of presenting arguments, refuting arguments and free debate, the debaters on the both sides fought back against logical loopholes of the opposite team and exhibited meticulous thinking and proficient debating skills, presenting the audience a heated and wonderful debate feast and winning warm applauses.

The affirmative held that “slash life is more worthy of being pursued”, while the negative “craftsmanship is more worthy of being pursued”. During the beginning presentation of arguments, the affirmative started from current social problems to be addressed and personal needs under the background of the times to discuss their respective views.

The negative explicitly introduced the meaning of “craftsmanship” and explained in details the significance of “craftsmanship” for social advance and cultural inheritance.

During the part of inquiring, the both sides mostly used “Is… or not” and “Do you agree… or not” to gain favorable information from the opposite for themselves to establish advantages as much as possible and as soon as possible.

The second affirmative and negative debaters refuting the first opposite debaters warmed up the scene. With the second negative being powerful and the second affirmative being logically clear, both of them intrigued the audience with their characteristic debating styles.

The two sides targeted loopholes of the opposite for refutation and used multiple examples to support their own argument. The second negative pointed out that “craftsmanship” helped realize life pursuit, while the second affirmative presented cases of “slash life” realizing life purpose.

The supportive argument by the third debaters was a test for both speed of the third debaters and response of other debaters. The two sides elaborated on personal happiness and social progress. “Craftsmanship gives a greater sense of happiness. It not only helps realize personal appeals, but also facilitates social advance,” said the third negative.

The third affirmative showed no impression of weakness at all, “Slash life is about both passion and devotion. With such a sense of happiness, one can better explore the depth of life.”

The free debate became even fiercer, covering the issue of realization of personal and social value. The two sides further debated over distribution of energy and the cases of “one person with multiple professions” were repeatedly presented.

The contest gradually became white-hot and the audience was increasingly intrigued.

Summary was equally impressive. The negative elaborated the statement “90% of the professions will disappear” that was proposed during the free debate, while the affirmative used the cases of Leonardo da Vinci and the Shawshank Redemption to argue “life is not about the length, but the width” and reaffirm “responsibility and passion can be both realized”.

Teachers from the Chinese Language Department of Secondary School made brief comments and analyzed each part of the contest: “The beginning was highly logical and well organized. Compared with the preliminary and semi-final, you have made great progress.” “In a debate, debaters can use lingual highlights to win over audience, interact with the audience and bring out the potential of the art of language to the utmost.”

“Though it was a cross-grade contest, we can still unite and even complement each other.” “I’m interested in debate not only because of its own charm, but also because of our friendship and mutual support with the teammates,” said the debaters afterwards.

The debate presented the students with an opportunity of identifying life value and their own pursuit. Haidian Kaiwen Academy used the form of debate to stage a platform of exchange, discussion and thoughts integration for the students. It fostered the students’ awareness of independent thinking and teamwork, exercised their abilities in language expression and logical response, displayed their hardworking spirit and initiative for excellence and helped them plan their life and position themselves properly.

Interest in a slash life and passion for craftsmanship are both manifestation of love for life.

“The more an argument is debated, the clearer it becomes.”

In debates, the students harvest friendship, a firm character and a critical mind.

Debates make one wise. Wish the students a life journey with flowers and harvest!