Topic 1 : How American and Chinese values shaped their coronavirus response.
1. Which country do you think has been the most successful in dealing with the pandemic?
2. The interviewee introduced the idea of “guai”, which is a Chinese word to describe a kid who listens to his or her parents. Do you think Japanese people are more like “guai” in relationship to their own government than being cautious of having their rights taken away like Americans?
3. According to the episode in the talk, your historical record of where you have been in the past few weeks will be notified to others to ensure the collective safety from the pandemic. If Japanese society does the same thing, do you think it is a good idea or not?
4. The interviewee thinks the West really needs to move a step towards the East by thinking about the collective as a whole rather than only think about oneself as an individual. Do you agree with this idea?
5. Regarding the idea of the collective, do you think East Asian countries such as Japan and Korea share this value? Do Japanese tend to ignore the individual freedom in the presence of the necessity to work in a group?
6. Can you think of any good effect that the pandemic has brought about in the world?
Topic 2 : How can you defend “Those People?”
1. Why do you think even the people who are probably guilty have the right to be defended by lawyers?
2. Do you agree with the speaker’s idea that offering support to criminals to restore their lives is beneficial to our society as a whole? What about if you yourself or your family members are victims?
3. If you are a lawyer defending a criminal, do you think you can be proud of your job? What would you think?
4. What do you think a society should do to help people who could possibly become a criminal? (Maybe this works better?)
5. In designing our future society, which do you think is a good idea, spending more resources for the strong and rich or empowering the weak and poor?
