American Table Tennis - How "Ping Pong Diplomacy" Put American Table Tennis on the World Map

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Although not as supreme or quite as favorite as other pro-sports in the world today, American Table Tennis has been colse to for longer than you think. For those who were lucky sufficient to have been colse to at the time, a enchanting but foremost cultural event transpired roughly four decades ago in the land where Table Tennis is possibly more revered and respected than any other sport: Japan. Most people who know about this part in America's rich history refer to it as "Ping Pong Diplomacy" when relations between the two world superpowers were not as open as they are today. 

It was while a visit to Japan in 1971 by the United States Table Tennis team where Glenn Cowan, a flamboyant but beautifully gifted player trained a limited too long and just happened to miss the team bus. A Japanese official had come by and informed Cowan and his Japanese sparring partner that their time was up; the training factory was to be terminated for the evening.

Table Tennis

While trying frantically to search the rest of his team members in a sea of unfamiliar faces, a player aboard the Chinese team bus waived Cowan over and told him to get on their bus instead.   As the bus travelled along, the players from opposite sides of the world struck up a conversation with the aid of a translator. Zhuang Zedong, a member of the Chinese squad realized the chance for relationship building and chose diplomacy over heavily ingrained cultural responsibilities. 

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Coming transmit towards Cowan, Zhuang Zedong tapped him lightly upon the shoulders and proceeded to gift him with a gorgeous silk-screen portrait of the Huangshan Mountains. Cowan immediately understood and read the situation correctly by trying to find something of equal value in return, all he could muster up after rifling desperately straight through his entire Gym bag's worth of belongings was an old comb certainly unworthy of the magnitude of the situation.

Instead of offering a sub-par gift, Cowan left the Chinese team bus and was immediately greeted by the press and hoards of photographers because it's not daily you see an American born table tennis player exiting a Team China bus with a smile on his face and a gift firmly in hand. He would have to wait for someone else opportune time to return the favour. 

Glen Cowan would get his chance ultimately and presented Zhuang Zedong with a patriotic American t-shirt with the words "Let it Be" emblazoned on the front in clear red, white, and blue lettering. Suffice it to say that the cultural tensions experienced while the 1960's and throughout the 1970's between these two countries were well chronicled in history books, but instead of going with the flow, these two particular athletes saw past the restrictions and limitations that society has a tendency of placing upon our humble shoulders and took the chance to see what cooperation and camaraderie can nothing else but look like. This might not have been possible with any other sport. 

So the next time whatever happens to ask you what American Table Tennis is nothing else but about, let them know about this "Ping Pong Diplomacy" between the U.S. And Japan.

American Table Tennis - How "Ping Pong Diplomacy" Put American Table Tennis on the World Map

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