Chinese National Debate Team
Visit Kirkland and Microsoft

 

February 2010

 

Four Chinese college debaters and their coach visited the United States in February for a speaking tour of American Colleges and Universities.  The students attend

Xi’an Jiaotong University -- considered one of China’s “Ivy League” schools -- located in Xi'an, the ancient capital of China.  Fluent in English, these award winning students enjoy debating any topic with limited time to prepare and were eager to show off their intellectual prowess.

 

Team members included Xiaoyu He (Sovinny), 21; Wen Wang (Tasha), 21; Shenggang Li (Peter)  20; and Zhe Xu (Stanley), 21. The team was lead by coach Younger Yang Ge (Younger), a graduate instructor of linguistics and English at Dalian Nationalities University.

 

The Chinese debate tour was sponsored by IDEA – the International Debate Education Association. The students visited six American schools: Willamette University, University of Puget Sound, Pacific Lutheran University, Western Washington University, Linfield College and Northwest University.

 

The Chinese arrived on the campus of Northwest University in Kirkland on Wednesday afternoon, February 16 and took part in a question and answer session with students and faculty. That evening they enjoyed dinner at the home of Gary and Teresa Gillespie. Gary is coach of the Northwest University debate team and Teresa is Dean of the School of Business and Management.

 

Top NU debater Brandon Schulz joined the dinner, which included Chinese treats such as barbeque pork buns, and dim sum shrimp dumplings along with American style pulled sweet chicken and sliced beef tenderloin. The students were delighted that they were served sticky rice and sweet rice pudding – a Chinese New Year favorite purchased from a Chinese bakery.

 

On Thursday Prof. Gillespie took the students on a tour of Seattle, including a visit to the Seattle Library, the first Starbucks store in Pikes Street Market, a ride on the Monorail and lunch at the Space Needle. Afterwards the group explored the Experience Music Project.

 

That evening the Chinese took part in a show debate with Northwest students, tackling the light hearted topic: It is better to be good looking than rich. NU affirmed and the Chinese opposed. About fifty people attended the debate held in Butterfield Chapel. The Northwest students who debated were: team captain Morgan Chinn, 21, Environmental Science major from Kirkland, WA; Brandon Schulz, 20, Communication major from Lynden, WA; and Max Mooney, 19, Biblical Literature major from Ellensburg, WA.  At the end the audience voted by applause for the Chinese. Then Communication Studies Vice President Rachel Arteaga presented gift bags filled with treats and memorabilia which she collected for Chinese guests.

 

On Friday the Chinese and Northwest University students were invited to debate before a lunch meeting of the Microsoft Political Action Committee (PAC) in Redmond. The Microsoft PAC is group of Microsoft employees interested in political issues. The students enjoyed a boxed lunch, then debated before a standing room only crowd of more than one hundred, including some higher level managers. The debate topic concerned the use of technology in China.

 

After the debate, PAC host Mike Egan presented each student and coach with black a Microsoft logo notebook as a gift. The employees responded enthusiastically to the debate and stayed afterwards to chat with students. One employee of Chinese decent even offered to take the students to the Microsoft store to purchase them Microsoft Works as gifts. In addition to Morgan Chinn and Brandon Schultz, the Northwest students who debated at Microsoft included James Dominguez, 21, an English major from Orange, CA.

 

Later Professor Gillespie drove the Chinese team to Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma for the next leg of the tour.

 

The Chinese debaters were especially grateful for their time with the Northwest team. They presented professor Gillespie a paper cut banner from their university for him to hang in his office as a memento of our time together.

 

Debate Expertise

The students were selected for the National Chinese Debate team because of their winning record at English and Mandarin debate tournaments in China.

 

He and Li won first place and third place at IDEA sponsored competitions featuring more than 140 teams. 

 

The students are delightful speakers, bright, witty and able to get to the heart of issues to

 dominate opponents.

 

The American students are top debaters in our region. Schultz and Chinn challenged the best debaters in Europe when competing at meets at Oxford University and Cambridge University in November.  They returned to win second place at the Lower Columbia College tournament. Recent wins for the Northwest team include: an Excellent and Good Plaque for ranking in the top 20 and 30 percent at the Pi Kappa Delta regional tournament at Mt Hood College the end of February, second place at a tournament sponsored by Northwest University in January, and third place at Linfield College in November.

 

Next for Eagle Debate team

Northwest University Eagle debaters will face off against Bellevue College for a show debate on Friday, March 19 at 7:30 PM in the Health and Science Argue Lecture Hall on the Northwest University campus in Kirkland. The topic of the debate will be: We should eat cats and dogs. Northwest will affirm.

 

The team will finish the season by competing at the national championships in Denver the weekend of April 9.
 

Gary Gillespie

                     

 

 

 

 

Chinese National Debate Team
versus
Northwest University

Thursday, February 18
7:30 PM
Butterfield Chapel
on the Northwest University campus
Free
Watch debaters from China’s Ivy League Jiaotung University
face off with American students.

 

Debate Topic:  
We would rather be good looking than rich

Representing United States
Morgan Chinn
Brandon Schulz
Max Mooney

 

Representing China
Xiaoyu He
Wen Wang
Shenggang Li