Easily the most interesting thing to happen this week: debating. Opportunities to let my students express their own opinions is always a good way to get everyone involved regardless of English ability or enthusiasm. It was an innocent lesson; we started with the almost unanimously squashed notion that, ‘Students should be given lots of homework’. To make it more difficult I decided which students had to argue For or Against. I made it clear that I was much more interested in the reasoning behind their decisions than the decisions themselves, so the debates were centred around justification and reasoning.

We moved onto, ‘Children should be allowed to play video games all day’. Currently in China online games can only be played by under-eighteens for a few hours per day. This issue was actually fairly divisive; leading to an almost even split. We had fairly good points, too: ‘It’s bad for your eyes,’ and ‘We won’t get any studying done,’ to ‘We have too much pressure, so it’s a good way to relax’ and ‘We can learn things not taught in school’ (not a bad point depending on which game they’re referencing here…).

I spontaneously moved the debate to real-life. And so the title. I was expecting a negative response. Students frequently use gay as an insult comparable to pig or dog (knowing full well what it means), often to laugh at the less popular kids; I find it incredibly frustrating when language barriers prevent me from explaining that not only am I telling them off for being mean, I’m also telling them off for using that word as an insult.

By and large, my students are pro-marriage equality. Who’d have thought it, in an area of China strongly influenced by conservative Muslim culture which (just like conservative Christianity) is often homophobic. Many students whom I know to be devout spoke in favour of the motion. Maybe because, out here, religion can be nearly as stigmatising as being gay, there is simply less propensity to be judgemental.

Of course, this result was not universal. I recorded results and a slew of (anonymous) quotes. No class had a consensus, but the sheer willingness to stand up for marriage equality was astounding. There is a group mentality in China; it does not do to stand against the majority. Given the stigma I did not expect such a positive result.

One student spoke against the notion but could not think of a reason. Some quoted Chinese culture: words like impossible, crazy or wrong; one said, ‘China does not have many [gay people], so we don’t need gay marriage’ in another shining example of China’s lack of ability to comprehend niche markets. The multitude of reasons given in favour ranged from, ‘I like it,’ (red-faced and giggling), ‘There are too many guys in China anyway,’ (practical; referring to the gender imbalance – though not acknowledging Lesbians) and, ‘It will help the world population,’ to more emotive arguments such as, ‘True love has no rules,’ ‘It should be OK for people to be happy,’ and even, ‘I like women more than men so I think I will be happier,’ from one girl who stood up, jaw set, and delivered that loudly to the whole class. They evidently already knew from their reaction, but I was still seriously impressed, not to mention delighted to see an openly gay student.

Overall, 66% were in favour (comparable to the UK). In 20 years’ time, could this be the face of China? We’ll have to wait and see. In other news, our kettle broke, we discovered a new restaurant, and I spent the weekend ironing. We also visited a new bar with the other foreigners and ended up staying there until 5am.

—TJC

Featured image: the blackboard during one class’ debate.