On the afternoon of November 13, 2016, the lecture hall on the fifth floor of Shenzhen Library was immersed in a warm atmosphere. The 2nd Shenzhen College Student Debating Competition was held here. After two hours of intense competition, the team of Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech), comprising Pan Minglun, Huo Yujia, Xu Chenghao and Wan Zeyu, claimed the championship. Huo was named the “Thinking Star” and the Student Union of SUSTech won the “Outstanding Organization Award”. 

As a key theme event during the 17th Shenzhen Reading Month, the 2nd “Thinking Star-Shenzhen College Student Thinking & Debating Competition”, organized by Shenzhen Library in association with “Dute” App of Shenzhen Special Zone Daily, attracted nine universities and colleges in Shenzhen, including SUSTech, Shenzhen University (SZU), the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School, Harbin Institute of Technology Shenzhen Graduate School, Shenzhen Tourism College of Jinan University, Shenzhen Polytechnic, Shenzhen Institute of Information Technology and Guangdong Southwest Polytechnic.

Through intense competition, SUSTech and SZU were qualified for the final for a final clash centering on the subject of “how to govern telecommunication frauds”.

Held during Shenzhen Reading Month every year, the competition is an innovative thinking event designed by Shenzhen Library for local college students in 2015. Unlike common debate competitions, the competition is not intended for refutation, but to cultivate competitors’ abilities of analysis and comprehension, absorption and integration, logical thinking and innovative thinking, and to provoke college students’ thought on hot social issues. The competition was honored as the Best Innovation Event during the 16th Shenzhen Reading Month, and supported by the Special Fund of Shenzhen for Cultural Development Publicity in 2016.