As listed on the International Middle School Students Chinese Debate Rankings (November, 2019 to August, 2021), team from Shimen Middle School (hereinafter referred to as "Shimen Debate Team") has outranked its rivals from all across the world, winning the third place (score: 1950). Following High School Affiliated to Nanjing Normal University and Experimental High School Attached to Beijing Normal University (南京师范大学附属中学、北京师范大学附属实验中学), Shimen Debate Team led all other schools from Guangdong Province on the chart. This marked another celebration of logic and eloquence for Shimen Debate Team after it won champion at "Li Ji Cup" National Middle School Students Chinese Debate Competition and the second place at 2021 Chinese Debate World Cup Runner-up (“礼济杯”全国中学生华语辩论赛冠军、2021华语辩论世界杯亚军).

Shimen Debate Team: honored as World Top 3 for the first time 14 years after its founding 

On the list this year, teams from 312 schools were recognized as the most competitive debate groups in the world, including those from Malaysia, Singapore, Australia and so on. Measured by multiple factors (e.g. level of the competition, the number of teams covered), the ranking reflects the overall performance by school debate teams in the past cycle.

"I have been tutoring the team ever since it was founded, and it has come so far at this point. We believe diligence draws better performance." said by Zhang Dexin, who has tranined the debate team for 14 years. In recent years, many sorts of international exchanges were provided to brew a global vision among team members, level up their Chinese language proficiency, logical thinking and teamwork spirit. 

"Best Team Debater": rewarding and fulfilling not just because of the win 

As the captain of Shimen Debate Team, Ye Zuxian was titled as the Most Outstanding Debater at the game. "Many think debate is like a quarrel, and even a game of sophistry. Not to mention the battle between reasoning and sensibility. None of these can define the debate nowadays." Ye said, "Debate reflects peoples thoughts on the subject matters and our society. We use arguments, like examples, mechanisms, and data, to articulate our ideas to the judges."

"Heres an example. At the preliminary, we debated over whether increasing the proportion women in leadership leads to better gender equality. As the supporters of the idea, we had our thoughts on womens position on the social ladder, the hardships they face when it comes to promotion and whats the key towards gender equality. We applied lots of cases, evidence and reasoning before we convinced the judges and won the game." Ye recalled that the time she spent at the team was nothing but priceless, as the team feels like home to her.

Author | Jersey

Revisor | Jessica

Photo | Foshan Daily, Pearl River Times