Someone Forgot to Tell the Chinese

 
 The 5th Almost Annual HIT Foreign Teachers Invitational Open Ping Pong Tournament was held recently and came off with out a hitch. The only surprise, not a single event was won by a Chinese player. Shhhhh, don't tell the Chinese.

If you were to ask anyone from my generation, " What sport do the Chinese excel at?" and our immediate response would be "ping pong".  Ping pong was introduced to the Chinese at the beginning of the 20th Century by visiting/marauding Westerners.

 

China first appeared on the world stage at the World Championships in 1956, became world champions in 1961, a title they held for the next handful of years. . From 1965 to 1971, China closed itself off to the world (See history on Mao and Cultural Revolution), disappearing from international ping pong competition.

In 1971, ping pong became a bridge to once again open up China to the world.  Chinese and American teams met in competition, the event becoming known as "Ping Pong Diplomacy". It resulted in open communications between China and the USA for the first time in many decades and a visit by Nixon in 1972. By 1981, China once again dominated the sport, winning all the gold medals at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

So you are asking  yourself, "What happened in Harbin?" Once again the Powerful Persian, Abbas dominated defeating Doctor J in the final of the  A event. The B, C, D and E events were won by a Korean, Russian, Russian and a Korean respectively. Does this indicate a crack in China's continued dominance in ping pong.  If it is, the Chinese don't seem to worried, they are too busy dominating  other sports.

I first saw Wang Binyu in the World Univerisiade Games in Harbin in 2009 where she, much to my shock defeated the Canadian team in the gold medal event for curling.

 Yes, curling. She went on, a few weeks later to win the Women's World Curling Championships. I saw Binyu one more time when she captured the bronze medal in the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.




 

She started curling for the first time in 2001 on a two sheet curling rink in Harbin and seen here in this picture. There are only two other curling facilities in China though I read, they are building a two sheet facility in Shanghai.

 
You can add swimming, diving, badminton, tennis, gymnastics and basketball to the list of China's current or future dominance in sports.  Yes basketball. Basketball has become huge in China. On most days, the 30 courts located outside our apartment are filled with students dribbling and slam dunking accompanied by the requisite yells and high fives. Even a little snow doesn't slow them down 

It hasn't exactly been an overnight sensation that some may think. Basketball was first introduced to China by the YMCA with the first recorded game played in 1895 by the Nankai Tigers.









China's first Olympic appearance was at the Berlin Olympics in 1936 where they actually won 1 game. They have since appeared in 10 more Olympics starting in 1975 at Montreal. They have dominated the sport in the Asian region for decades. The Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) is the most established  professional league in China, with 17 teams. Yao Ming is the most notable of seven players who started in the CBA and made it to the NBA. The NBA has a strong presence in China.

 At present there are about 10 ex-NBA players playing in the CBA with Tracy McGrady the most high profile player.

But I digress. We ended the tournament with a lovely dinner in a nice restaurant capped off by a delicious feed of Nonie's desserts. The perfect end to the 5th Almost Annual  HIT Invitational Open Ping Pong Tournament.