Sideways with Matthew Syed

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Matthew Syed explores the ideas that shape our lives, making us see the world differently.

Best-selling author Matthew Syed explores the ideas that shape our lives with stories of seeing the world differently.

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Sideways: 45. China's Ping Pong Power: Episode 1

05/07/2023

45. China's Ping Pong Power: Episode 1

BBC Radio 4 - Sideways, 45. China's Ping Pong Power: Episode 1

Matthew Syed tells the story of China's rise in the 20th century - through ping pong.

Former Olympic table tennis player Matthew Syed tells a history of modern China through its most enduring sport, starting with the tragedy of China's first champion, Rong Guotuan.

Matthew Syed is a former Olympic table tennis player for Great Britain. As Matthew travelled in China, competing against some of the world’s greatest players, he realised that ping pong is a game that has played a huge and fascinating role in the rise of a great power, taking us from the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949 to the sporting ambitions of the country today.

Matthew begins this three-part mini series from Sideways, with the story of the rise and tragic death of Rong Guotuan - an extraordinary player and China's first world champion in any sport. 

Chairman Mao and Zhou Enlai were keen ping pong players, and in the early years of the PRC the sport was a way of cementing national pride. And where better to showcase a new China and its sporting prowess than at the 1961 Beijing World Table Tennis Championships? But hidden behind the veneer of a newly built stadium and comforts for the visiting teams from all over the world, was a much darker experience for the people of China - an avoidable famine that's estimated by 1961 to have killed at least 36 million. 

Presented by Matthew Syed
Producer: Pippa Smith
Series Editor: Katherine Godfrey
Script consultation: Dr Olivia Cheung, SOAS, University of London
Sound Design and mix: Rob Speight
Archival research: Nadia Mehdi
With thanks to Zhijie Shao from the BBC World Service and to the International Table Tennis Federation

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