OOAK Table Tennis Forum

Almost 40 years have passed since the Ping Pong Diplomacy.
I don't intend to or want to discuss politics. But I am amazed at what this tiny TT ball could do.

I read somewhere that the U.S. and China are in discussions to have events in both countries commemorating the event.

_________________
"The greatest teacher, failure is"
USATT Rating: 1725
Blade: Stiga Cybershape Carbon
FH Rubber: Butterfly Tenergy 19 2.1
BH Rubber: Dr Neubauer ABS3 1.5

I don't think enough of this has been made around the world to benefit the cause of Tabletennis. Somehow I think that our beloved game could be made MUCH more popular (especially in the US, but in other countries like Oz too) if there was more made of it than just a late night TV news segment. Even today in Australia (and I assume the world over) TT serves as a social medium between different races of people that are unlikely to meet in any other sporting forum (except perhaps badminton and soccer).

_________________
I'm always in the dark, but the Dark sheds lights upon everything!! Beauty is only pimple deep! Beauty is in the eye of the pipholder!
S/U 1: Blade: Bty Gergely . FH Black Andro Rasant 2.1 . BH Red Tibhar Grass Dtecs
S/U 2: Blade: Bty Gergely . FH Black Hexer+ 2.1 . BH Red GD Talon
S/U 3: Blade: Bty Gergely . No rubbers...thinking of adding Red Dtecs and Black Rasant
Aussie Table Tennis Shop / Aussie Table Tennis Facebook Page / Equipment Review Index / Read my Reb Report Blog: click here.

Don't know if you guys heard over there, but Dick Miles, 10 time us champ, and member of that diplomacy team, died a few weeks ago.

_________________
Donic Defplay Senso Giant Dragon Submarine 1.8mm Giant Dragon Talon OX

Confusion, manipulation, variation, this is the way of the darkside.

I did hear that, he was a true legend.

_________________
"The greatest teacher, failure is"
USATT Rating: 1725
Blade: Stiga Cybershape Carbon
FH Rubber: Butterfly Tenergy 19 2.1
BH Rubber: Dr Neubauer ABS3 1.5

I did hear that, he was a true legend.

_________________
"The greatest teacher, failure is"
USATT Rating: 1725
Blade: Stiga Cybershape Carbon
FH Rubber: Butterfly Tenergy 19 2.1
BH Rubber: Dr Neubauer ABS3 1.5

I just want to share this article with you, on another "sports diplomacy".
http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/americas/ ... tml?hpt=C1
I hope it will be successful.

Also, after reading a thread in MyTT, I hope TT takes off in Cuba. We are so fortunate and blessed we can play TT and do a bit TT EJ.

50 years now.
https://www.ittf.com/2021/04/10/histori ... rtant-ever

And it was even smaller back then, too...

I've been looking for Tim Boggan's account of the trip and can't find it. It mentioned shenanigans during the stop in Hong Kong. I did find this:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/ ... years-ago/

It kind of makes you realize how ad-hoc everything was, and what a diverse group of people the US players were.

Iskandar

Here it is, Iskandar, in 15 chapters:-

http://216.119.100.169/articles/ppoddity01.shtml

Further reading on the subject - Nicholas Griffin's fascinating book 'Ping-Pong Diplomacy' which is not just about 1971 but the surprisingly wide influence of politics in TT over the years, And on the lead-up to the 1971 Worlds and China's return, Mitsuru Jojima's 'Ogi' (the life and times of Ichiro Ogimura) is an excellent read

Despite the rapprochement between China and the US begun in Nagoya at the '71 Worlds, symbolised by Zhuang Zedong presenting Glenn Cowan with a scarf on that legendary bus journey, there were other not-so-friendly political shenanigans. Zhuang refused to play his Singles match against Khau Bou of Cambodia because Khau was a 'representative of a puppet clique'.

One upshot of this is that Zhuang can claim to be one of only two players (both World Singles champions, obviously) who were never defeated in open Singles play at the World Championships.

Who can guess the other?

Zhang Yining?

(Cao Yanhua also came to mind, but she was told to lose a match, I think.)

Neither of those...Cao Yanhua lost singles matches in 1979 (to Uhlikova after a five gamer) and the Final to Tong Ling in 1981.
Zhang Yining lost the Final in '99 to Wang Nan (from 2-0 up), to Wang again in the semis in 2001, Wang again in the Final in '03 and Guo Yue in the semi in 2007.


But it is a woman!

Yeah, top player Dal-Joon Lee (DJ Lee) refused to go to China, since he was an immigrant from South Korea and had lost family members to the war. When the Chinese made a return visit to the US they were greeted by street protests organized by conservative groups, who carried signs trying to get them to defect.

Thanks for the link - I remember reading this maybe 15-20 years ago. I'm not usually a fan of Boggan's writing style, it's quite choppy (I don't know if anyone else has read his "how to play table tennis" book, I didn't get past the first few pages, it was hard to figure out what he was writing about, what with mentions of "lollipops" and such). He often had an axe to grind, perhaps because of this he doesn't pull any punches and makes a lot of interesting (and catty) comments about the people involved. He also reveals stuff that perhaps would never have been revealed in print if anyone else had written it, and it makes for an interesting read.

Iskandar