Significance of Table Tennis in China During the 20th Century

Despite being popular in China, the game originated in Japan in 1920s before it later spread to China. During the earlier generations of the game, table tennis is known to have been mostly played in New York majorly by intellectuals. Ring Guotuan became the first Chinese player to win the table tennis world’s championship title in 1959. Zhuang Zedong remains one of the most renowned Chinese table tennis players recognized for having won three consecutive world championships titles in 1961, 1963 and 1965. Other than just being a sporting activity, table tennis was employed in various political processes as a unity tool and provided a calm surrounding for negotiations during war. S relations in 1972, an association that was in a wrangled state about 20 years before by Chinese communist regime in Beijing as from 1949 (Lin, 1996).

It is for table tennis that the U. S president Richard Nixon visited China in 1972 (Xia, Yafeng. His visit was followed by a peaceful negotiation between the U. S and China and the ice age was brought to an end. In 1971, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) was elected to vice chairmanship of table tennis association. These events demonstrated the beginning of what would later be notoriously referred to as Ping-Ping diplomacy (Griffin, Nicholas, 2014). This one of the tactics employed to ensure diplomacy. Table tennis tournaments provided a peaceful platform for the reconciliatory moves between China and the U. S. The major difference during this time was two nations’ perception on and support for imperialism. The U. S supported imperialism while China was against it.

Ping-pong diplomacy games also helped in the sharing of cultural values between the two countries. Table tennis as an active sporting activity played a significant role in diplomatic processes and was at that time used in settling stalemates among nations. The relation was later restored under the leadership of Chiang Kaishek of the Nationalist Party in 1952. The reunion was made possible by Sino – Japanese peace treaty when Japan regained her sovereign status. Three years later in 1953, Katayama together with Zhou signed an agreement with Chinese People’s Association for Friendship (CPAF) with other countries aimed at promoting cultural and sports exchange between China and Japan. Later in 1956, Katayama established the Japan – China Cultural Exchange Association (Itoh, 2011). This association went ahead and held a world table tennis championship in Tokyo Japan.