Training & Tournament in Wuhan, China

Last weekend in Wuhan, IDEA visited the Hubei University of Economics to help train and judge at its Cang Long Cup. In addition to helping with training in the English language and its 64-team English tournament, IDEA made a first attempt at working with Chinese-language debate. The training session attracted over 100 participants and fused the Western format of British Parliamentary debate with a Chinese-language medium.

Led by Eric Barnes, philosophy professor at Hobart and William Smith Colleges, with interpretation help from Helen McCabe, also an HWS professor, and Anna Martin, the team introduced participants to debate generally and the norms of BP debate specifically. Beginning with how to structure speeches and arguments and progressing to a demonstration debate as well as practice in public speaking and debate, the workshop began Friday evening and ended Saturday evening.

The demonstration debate by students from the host university and Beijing Foreign Studies University centered on the motion "Western Media Influence does more harm than good in China." Important issues of media bias were discussed in front of the 115-strong audience. The English language demonstration focused on the topic of Genetically-modified foods in China.

On Sunday, the English language track, which had several hundred participants, held a 64-team BP mini-tournament with 4 rounds. Each team was able to debate in each BP position one time. Because there was no final round, participants were given Gold, Silver or Bronze IDEA certificates based on their performance in the 4 rounds. Topics debated ranged from providing condoms on college campuses to intellectual property rights for musicians.

There are many people to thank, but I'd like to specifically mention Isabel from HBUE, Eric Barnes, Helen McCabe, Anna Martin, Gary Rybold, all the student volunteers and judges, and the administration of HBUE for supporting debate.