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Sideways: 47. China's Ping Pong Power: Episode 3

05/07/2023

47. China's Ping Pong Power: Episode 3

BBC Radio 4 - Sideways, 47. China's Ping Pong Power: Episode 3

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

Ping pong enters a glittering age as China opens up economically and the Olympic medal tally skyrockets. Matthew Syed tells a history of 20th-century China through table tennis.

In the final episode of this mini series from Sideways, former professional ping pong player, Matthew Syed, tells the story of how ping pong fared in a more open China. 

After Chairman Mao's death in 1976, his successor Deng Xiaoping introduced privatisation, contracting out, and a host of reforms that freed key parts of the economy from central control. At the same time, China's table tennis team were starting to lose their primacy in the game, with challenging new styles of play emerging from Sweden in particular. But alongside more economic freedom and openness, came a relaxation and innovation in Chinese ping pong style which ushered in a glittering new era of Olympic glory for the Chinese national team.

From a sport that brought Mao's China such national pride in the early decades of the PRC, and then laid the groundwork for the rapprochement with the United States, ping pong today is no longer the popular sport of young people in China, and the Communist Party has its sights on prestige in other sporting arenas too. As the series draws to a close, Matthew explores the changing nature of Chinese sporting diplomacy and how sport, and table tennis, are still deeply entwined with the country’s wider ambitions. 

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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