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Meriden girls win Chinese Debating Competition

Victors in the finals: Arianna Li, Meiying Tian, Elsa Lyu and Audrey Zou

Team Meriden has been named the winner of the NSW Schools Chinese Debating Championship. Year 10 students, Arianna Li, Elsa Lyu, Meiying Tian and Audrey Zou, were excited to bring home the championship trophy and were proud to witness Arianna being named the most outstanding debater in the finals event.

The topic of the debate was “Should young people embrace idealism?” Meriden girls were on the negative team and argued that it was difficult for idealists to live in the real world without experiencing extreme suffering at its imperfection and suggested it would be more realistic and healthier for young people to have ideals and work towards making those ideals a reality instead.

Audrey said the team thoroughly enjoyed the camaraderie, culture and skill development they experienced through their involvement in the competition.

“We really enjoyed the cultural context that was incorporated into the competition,” she said.

“It was great to look closely at questions that resonate in Chinese culture and think about how we could make these relevant to our context in Australian society. The event really improved our logical thinking and debating skills and we learnt a lot of useful things during training and during the debates.”

Organised by the NSW Chinese Debating Association, the championship encourages fluency in Chinese language skills through intensive reading, writing, speaking and listening in a competitive setting.

Languages teacher, Mr Ken Caoyang Lu, said the girls demonstrated an extraordinary level of skill in the final round.

“The students spoke confidently and convincingly, used high-level questioning techniques and responded to questioning from their opposing team,” he said.

“We are proud of the students who represented the School so well in the finals and we are also proud of the performance of all the girls who debated for Meriden in the earlier rounds of the competition.”

Fourteen Meriden girls, who are studying the Chinese Heritage elective, entered the debating competition. The teams performed strongly in each round, winning two of the three debates held prior to the finals.

Student members of the Meriden Chinese Debating Team include: Stephanie Chen, Anning Dai, Lareina Ji, Arianna Li, Shuan Li, Anna Liu, Melody Luo, Elsa Lyu, Christine Nan, Meiying Tian, Gina Wang, Yunzhi Wang, Serena Yao and Audrey Zou.

The School congratulates all members of this hardworking team on their success in this intellectually and linguistically challenging event.

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