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: 46. China's Ping Pong Power: Episode 2

05/07/2023

46. China's Ping Pong Power: Episode 2

BBC Radio 4 - Sideways, 46. China's Ping Pong Power: Episode 2

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

An American hippie and the world's greatest table tennis player meet on a bus. It changes history. Matthew Syed tells a story of 20th-century China through ping pong.

Former England international table tennis player, Matthew Syed, continues this three-part mini series from Sideways, with a moment that changed the course of China-US relations - when the hippie American player Glen Cowan met the world's greatest table tennis star Zhuang Zedong. 

This event would usher in rapprochement between the two nations and lay the groundwork for both Henry Kissinger and Richard Nixon's landmark visits to the once isolated China.

In China's Ping Pong Power, Matthew explores the vital role played by the little game of ping pong in the rise of this great power, taking us from the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, to the thawing of US-China relations during the Cold War, to Olympic glory and the sporting ambitions of the country today.

Presented by Matthew Syed
Producer: Katherine Godfrey
Series Lead: 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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