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​NJU Wins 8th World Mandarin Debating Championship

Nanjing University Debate Team won championship after it defeated its Tianjin University counterpart 7:2 in the final tournament of the 8th World Mandarin Debating Championship on May 1st.

This was the first time the NJU team became the world champion in 23 years after it won championship in the 1995 International Varsity Debate.

NJU’s doctoral student Liao Yanlin won the best debater in the final.

The 8th World Mandarin Debating Championship started in the second half of last year, with a participation of 461 universities at home and abroad.

After half a year’s competition in 31 divisions, debate teams from 24 universities including Tsinghua University, Nanjing University, the University of Sydney, and University of Toronto were qualified as finalists to compete for the championship.

Through group matches, eighth-finals, quarter-finals, and semi-finals, the final match focusing on the topic of “Whether youth should go far away or go back home to pursue the value of life” was between teams of Tianjin University and Nanjing University. Finally, the NJU team won the championship.

NJU debate team receives the award

The World Mandarin Debating Championship is held by the People’s Daily New Media Center, the Communist Youth League Committee of Nanjing, Publicity Department of the CPC Committee of Jianye District, Nanjing, the Communist Youth League Committee of Jianye District, Nanjing, Junhe Youth Cultural Exchange Association.

Since its setup in 2011, the championship has successfully held eight tournaments and has attracted attention from people of all walks of life.

The finals were broadcast live on the People’s Daily client, and its video view has reached 3.3 million.

The NJU debate team has upheld the tradition of NJU “Rigor with High Aspiration, Assiduity and Integrity” and participated in large-scale debate tournaments beginning in 1990. It won championships in the 1994 Changhong Cup National University Student Debate and the 1995 International Varsity Debate; the four team members, “four golden flowers,” became well-known across the country.

Since the beginning of the 21st century, the NJU debate team has been committed to promoting interschool exchange through debates and exploring the innovation in debate activities. It regularly invites debate teams of famous university to have debates in Nanjing. It initiated the university debate competition in Nanjing area, and won the competition twice.

Since the beginning of 2016, Zhang Yixiu, a young teacher from the Philosophy Department, has served as the team coach, bringing many new ideas and enabling the team to make many breakthroughs.

The NJU debate team has also received advice and encouragement from many other teachers such as Hu Daping, Hu Yiqing, Zhai Xuewei, Qiu Lufeng and Shan Feng.

The last time the NJU debate team won the world championship was 23 years ago when NJU’s “four golden flowers” won in Singapore in 1995.

The topic of the debate in that year was “whether it is difficult to know and easy to do ot easy to know and difficult to do,” and the opponent was the team from Fu Jen Catholic University.

Its best debater Lin Zhengjiang also served as the head referee of the 8th World Mandarin Debating Championship.

The scene of the final tournament