Somewhere Over the Rainbow

Now for something a little bit different. I was at a discussion on the following subject tonight: Should same-sex marriage be legalized in mainland China? Which wow, kind of cool, right? This event was organized by one of the undergraduate colleges of my university, it was two debate teams competing. Four people on each team, with a very rigid structure. The teams took turns giving their opinion, each participant had between 1:30 and 3 minutes to speak. Now obviously, this was a debate team competition, so the opinions they represented were not necessarily their own, but I still thought it was immensely interesting. So here, a little recount of the event. Also remember that I understood only about 30% and I might have misunderstood some things.

(Gary, if you're reading this, ask your roommate how much of this is accurate :) )

The event was started with the moderators introducing the judges, most of whom were teachers at the university. Here I took my first note of the evening: One of the teachers hadn't shown up, which the moderator commented on with 可能他没敢来 - maybe he didn't dare to come.

Then the debate started. All the debators were male, which I thought was a little strange, but I guess just the way it is. And let me just say, they had amazing debating skills. Most of them used the time they had perfectly, coming to their conclusion just as  time ran out. One of them even finished exactly to the second. Also, they were very animated and spoke at a ridiculous speed (one of the reasons I struggled to understand them). When they were asking each other questions, it was a common technique to pose the question, and then immediately interrupt your opponent's answer with the next question. All in all, a highly entertaining event.

So now for a few of the arguments from both sides.

The Pros:

• Homosexual people are normal people, so they should have the same rights.
• Changing the law will also change the attitude of the people. They used an analogy to equal rights for 黑人 - literally "black people" - in America. Once the law was changed to protect equal rights, the attitude of the general public also changed to become more accepting.
• It takes time to change the law, but to protect equal rights, you need a law change. So better start now.
• Then there was something about the number of inhabitants in China, which I didn't quite understand. Maybe, because they can't have children, the growth will slow down?? Or they can adopt children? I really can only guess.
• It worked in the West.
• It's being discussed in Taiwan. (This is where the "mainland" in the discussion topic is important)
• Also they kept saying something about 30%. Where sorry, my listening skill totally failed. I have no idea. Maybe 30% of Chinese people support equal rights for homosexuals??

The Cons:

•  The pressure by society is too big. No children. Disappointment to parents.
• China is still developing, there is not yet enough public support for homosexuals to change the law. 
• The West and China are different. Also, legalization of same-sex marriage in some Western countries did not necessarily lead to more acceptance.
• There has not been sufficient preparation by the government for this kind of legislation change. It would have to be 考虑'd (thought over) a lot.

You may notice, that my notes are more comprehensive for the pros. Maybe because I am more drawn to their point of view, also because they in general spoke more clearly and understandably.

So much for the formal debate part. Afterwards, the audience members had the opportunity to state their own opinion. I would happily have done so, but sadly my vocabulary is highly insufficient for that kind of discourse. One of the people who spoke, said that he thinks relationships that are not 男女 man and woman are 恶性 - wicked. Or he said that they make him 恶心 - want to puke. Either way, :(. But afterwards, the moderator asked the people in the audience to raise their hand if they didn't agree with him, and a clear majority did, so :).

Then, to round up the event, one of the teachers spoke. He said that the question of legalizing same-sex marriage is a question of either valuing personal freedom or societal order. Which I think describes the situation in China pretty perfectly.

So yeah, that's how I experienced this evening. Obviously this is in no way a complete picture. There are a lot of things I didn't understand. But I still thought it was worth sharing. Oh and also, the Pros won :)

The poster for the event. Basically I walked past, saw the rainbow, thought huh? It can't be. But it was! Props to you, 交大.

Chinese Word of the Day: 同性恋婚姻 tongxinglian hunyin - same-sex marriage