Pīngpāng qiú – China's national sport

You might be surprised to know that table tennis is actually quite a new sport, having been invented right about Mao Zedong's time, in the early 1900s. It was also not invented in China, which might be another popular misconception. It began, rather, in Victorian England and spread into Asia.

Table tennis, like its name suggests, started as an indoor replacement for tennis which was very popular among the upper-class in Britain. Instead of a ball, they would use a champagne cork and use a cigarette box for the paddle. A stack of books worked well as a net, too.

While the game went out of style in Europe, it grew to almost incomprehensible proportions in places like Japan, Korea and China. This innocent Victorian upper-class pastime quickly became a competitive sport, eventually becoming China's national sport in the 1960s. Maybe it's because the equipment needed are both cheap and easy to find. The game itself can be easily set up, whether in factory cafeterias or outdoors.

Why table tennis is often called ping pong can be traced back to China, too. In China, the game is called pīngpāng qiú (乒乓球) and because of the Chinese dominance of the game, the name has found its way into other languages. In official circles, such as clubs and in competition, the game is called table tennis, but in school gyms and other places where the game is played for fun, it's known as ping pong.

Ping pong diplomacy

For both political and historical reasons, China dropped out of the table tennis map from 1965 to 1971, the height of the Cultural Revolution. Ping pong took center stage in world politics during the 1970s, though, with the so-called “ping pong diplomacy” between the United States and China.

Everything started when, in 1971, after a long absence, China joined the table tennis world championships in Japan. While there, the Chinese delegation invited the American delegation to visit.

On April 10, nine players, four officials and a married couple from the United States were welcomed joyously as they crossed the bridge connecting Hong Kong to mainland China. It was the first American delegation to visit China since the People's Republic of China was founded in 1949. It ended the news blackout that was in force, since the delegation was accompanied by five American journalists. In the next few days, the American audience watched as their own team played (and lost) table tennis, visited the Great Wall and spoke with Chinese students and workers.

Guo Yue holds the world championship title for women's table tennis. (Image: China News Service)Then Prime Minister Zhou Enlai so charmed the visitors that as a result, the US lifted a 20-year trade embargo against China. And the Chinese team were likewise invited to the US.

Chinese dominance at its best

During the Seoul Olympics in 1988, table tennis was finally included as an Olympic sport. Nowadays, the top players are mostly Chinese. In China, there are about 4 million table tennis players and it's a measure of the sport's popularity that Swedish table tennis star Jan-Ove Waldner, called Lao Wan in China, is surely known to all Beijing taxi drivers.

China's own “pīngpāng superstar” Wang Liqin became part of the national team when he was only 15. He was won three male world championships in a row. He often finds himself competing for the gold against his favorite opponent, his teammate Ma Lin.