Is Chinese table tennis hurting the sport?
Wednesday, 6th May 2009 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
China continued its table tennis dominance at the recent Table Tennis World Championships in Yokohama, Japan, with all events ending in all-China finals. Wang Hao beat Wang Liqin for the men's singles title, and Zhang Yining beat rising star Guo Yue for the women's crown.While China likes gold medals just as much as anyone, its officials realize that such thorough dominance of a sport could be too much of a good thing.
"If one team keeps winning all at the world championships and Olympics, table tennis' Olympic future is in danger," Yao Zhenxu, vice chairman of the Chinese Table Tennis Association, or CTTA (Xinhua).
To address the problem, the CTTA has announced a plan to help elevate the level of play globally, by sending more Chinese coaches abroad and sharing research on techniques and training, as well as welcoming foreign players to China's domestic league. CTTA chief Cai Zhenhua calls this the association's top priority this year.
Related: China announces its table tennis team
Tags: Guo Yue, ping pong, table tennis, Wang Hao, Wang Liqin, Zhang Yining
China take men's, women's ping pong team gold
Tuesday, 19th August 2008 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (1)
With last night's men's team table tennis gold medal, and the women's team title the night before, China is halfway to a sweep of the top spots in its national sport.
China defeated Germany in the men's final, which requires teams to play a mix of singles and doubles matches. Wang Hao and Ma Lin each won their singles matches easily, and then Wang Hao went on to win the doubles with partner Wang Liqin.
On Sunday, the women's team denied rivals Singapore an Olympic gold medal, with a 3-0 victory.
The singles competition for the women started yesterday, and for the men it begins today. Anything less than gold will be a disappointment, and China has the talent to sweep all three medals on both sides.
Finally, we'd like to take this occasion as an excuse to share a recent story from Titan Sports newspaper (below) about Wang Hao, whose mother apparently used to dress the ping pong phenom up like a little girl.
Tags: Ma Lin, Olympics, ping pong, Wang Hao
The Ping Pong Diplomats
Tuesday, 24th June 2008 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
The following was contributed by Beijing resident Michael Pigott. Want to share something going on in your corner of China? Go to our contribute page.Beijing—Foreign diplomats living in Beijing received a taste of China's national sport when they participated in the 2008 Diplomats' Table Tennis Tournament
The Serbian Embassy made it to the semi-finals.
The winner of the women's singles competition was Poland's Beata Sudar and the runner-up was the Philippines' Myca Magnolia Fischer. The team competition was taken out by Indonesia, who defeated the tournament's surprise packet Iran in the hard-fought final. The winning Indonesian team comprised two players, Bambang Purstyadi and Firdaus Amir.
The tournament's draw and its referees were organised by the Chinese Table Tennis Association (CTTA), which gave the tournament a professional touch. The holding of the tournament, which carried the theme 'Rally for friendship and harmony', coincided with the 50th day before the opening of the Beijing Olympic Games.
Tags: Chinese Table Tennis Association, Diplomats' Table Tennis Tournament, ping pong, recreation, table tennis
The National Pastime
Tuesday, 29th April 2008 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
It's China's national sport, and probably the only game that even the most bookish grade school student here can beat their foreign English teacher at. Since ping pong (aka table tennis or 乒乓球, ping pang qiu) became an Olympic sport in 1988, China has won 90 percent of the gold medals and 60 percent of silvers.For a primer on talking about ping pong in Chinese, check out this lesson from ChinesePod's Olympic series. Warning: This is an upper-intermediate lesson, so it is all in Chinese.
China also exports ping-pong talent all over the world. This article by Christopher Rhoads in the Wall Street Journal discusses how immigrants to the United States have impacted the game there and highlights the mixed feelings that can create among homegrown talent.
Tags: ChinesePod, language study, ping pong, table tennis