The National Pastime
Tuesday, 29th April 2008 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
It's China's national sport, and probably the only game that even the most bookish grade school student here can beat their foreign English teacher at. Since ping pong (aka table tennis or 乒乓球, ping pang qiu) became an Olympic sport in 1988, China has won 90 percent of the gold medals and 60 percent of silvers.For a primer on talking about ping pong in Chinese, check out this lesson from ChinesePod's Olympic series. Warning: This is an upper-intermediate lesson, so it is all in Chinese.
China also exports ping-pong talent all over the world. This article by Christopher Rhoads in the Wall Street Journal discusses how immigrants to the United States have impacted the game there and highlights the mixed feelings that can create among homegrown talent.
Tags: ChinesePod, language study, ping pong, table tennis