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Pickup Ping-Pong Rules Chinese Playgrounds

Columnist gets schooled playing pick-up in Beijing

By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff

Posted Aug 14, 2008 7:11 PM CDT
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(Newser) – China’s domination in table tennis is well documented—the top nine players in the world are Chinese, and the country nearly always takes the gold medal. But the LA Times’ Bill Plaschke wanted to see the sport in its natural habitat: in the park. Ping-pong tables dot Beijing the way basketball blacktops abound in US parks and playgrounds, and they are constantly full. Plaschke stepped up to the net—and got schooled.

He suffered crushing losses to a 13-year-old boy, a 47-year-old housewife, and assorted bystanders. Crowds gathered, laughing at the foreigner, keeping score and watching him retrieve countless errant balls. But in the process, he saw the peace the Chinese find in the game. “We don't play to win,” said one 60-year-old Mongolian. “We play to learn about each other.” Ping-Pong is the language of the Chinese, Plaschke reflects, and now he understands it, and them, better.

Zhang Lei, center, a former world champion, prepares to return the ball to reigning juniors world champion Song Shichoa during an event in Yorba Linda, Calif. Both are from China.
Zhang Lei, center, a former world champion, prepares to return the ball to reigning juniors world champion Song Shichoa during an event in Yorba Linda, Calif. Both are from China.   (AP Photo/Ric Francis)
A Uigher child holds a pingpong ball with two paddles near a veiled Muslim woman in Urumqi, western China's Xinjiang province, Friday, Aug. 8, 2008.
A Uigher child holds a pingpong ball with two paddles near a veiled Muslim woman in Urumqi, western China's Xinjiang province, Friday, Aug. 8, 2008.   (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
China is so good at pingpong that it's lesser players fill the ranks of other national teams.
China is so good at pingpong that it's lesser players fill the ranks of other national teams.   (Shutterstock)
In pickup pingpong, a player who loses a point has to pick up the ball, even if it lands in a crowd of bystanders.
In pickup pingpong, a player who loses a point has to pick up the ball, even if it lands in a crowd of bystanders.   (KRT Photos)
Chinese table tennis.
Chinese table tennis.   (KRT Photos)
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Pingpong? That's so Old China
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China has dominated sport for half-century
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