"You're a little fiercer." Looking at the opponent who is more than 30 years younger than himself on the other side of the table, Xu Yinsheng, 83, said, "I put you two balls, and if you win, we won't play." In the champion hall on the second floor of the China Table Tennis Museum on Jumen Road, the Shanghai world champion and honorary president of the International Table Tennis Federation for life, happily tried his hand.
In recent months, Xu Yinsheng has been very busy, and the activities to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Sino-US table tennis diplomacy have filled his schedule, and he is very happy to be able to sneak a few shots in his busy time. "Nong knows how to cut, I didn't want to be the chairman, I still like to study technology." Even if the skill has long ceased to be the same year, but talking about "positive glue and anti-glue, forehand backhand, ball diameter 38 mm to 40 mm", Xu Yinsheng, who is full of white hair, has two eyes shining, and he is relishing it.
Back in the VIP hall on the third floor of the Table Tennis Museum, Xu Yinsheng recalled the experience of "small balls turning big balls and small balls prying the earth" 50 years ago. "We just did the right thing at the right time and place, and it was a little bit of a push."
In his view, the inevitable of this accident is the simple friendship between the Chinese and American people and the good wishes of the two governments to seek contacts. This is what President Nixon said when he welcomed the Chinese table tennis team to the United States in 1972, "There will be wins and losses in table tennis matches, but the biggest winner is the friendship between the Chinese and American peoples." ”
"Zhuang Zedong is more enthusiastic and active."
Even 50 years later, Xu Still remembers the scene when American athlete Cohen got on the wrong car during the 1971 World Table Tennis Championships in Nagoya, Japan. "He was dressed as a long-haired hippie, which seemed to us to be a strange outfit." Suddenly, an American got into the car of a Chinese athlete, and everyone was not particularly surprised, that is, no one paid attention to him. After that, Zhuang Zedong took the initiative to go forward to say hello, the two people compared paintings, talked quite lively, Zhuang Zedong also gave a piece of brocade printed with Huangshan motifs as a souvenir to Cohen.
"Zhuang Zedong is more enthusiastic and active." Xu Yinsheng said calmly. Zhuang Zedong also mentioned in his memoirs later that this was entirely out of my instincts, and this is also the opportunity given to me by history, "Without Chairman Mao's instruction to 'distinguish between the US government and the people', without Premier Zhou's policy of 'friendship first, competition second', I would not have interacted with Cohen." ”
The hostilities between Chinese and American athletes have shown such a lively performance that this unusual move has been widely disseminated to the world through the news media. Two days later, Cohen returned an American jersey labeled "let it be" to Zhuang Zedong, a move that was also reported in the press.
Soon after, Xu Yinsheng, who was in Nagoya, heard the news that the Chinese side had invited the American team to visit China, "I was really shocked." After engaging in the central decision-making process, the friendly contact between our athletes plays a very good role in promoting." When the news reached Washington, President Nixon was also pleasantly surprised. Afterwards, he wrote in his memoirs, "I never expected that the initiative against China would be realized in the form of a visit by a table tennis team." ”
Due to the itinerary, Xu Yinsheng was unable to participate in the subsequent visit to China by the American table tennis team, nor was he able to participate in the Chinese table tennis team's visit to the United States in 1972. But he still said that he was fortunate that through the exchanges between athletes from the two countries, he broke the isolation between China and the United States from each other for more than 20 years and helped open a new page in Sino-US relations.
"Friendship first, competition second"
In the interview, Xu Yinsheng also deliberately corrected a statement from the outside world: "In the past (1950s and 1960s), because China and the United States did not establish diplomatic relations and the people did not communicate, there was hostility between the players of the two countries. This is untrue. ”
He recalled that from the 1953 new Chinese team to participate in the World Table Tennis Championships in Bucharest, Romania, to the 1971 World Table Tennis Championships in Nagoya, Japan, there have been contacts between Chinese and American athletes, the same competition, the same handshake, and the political confrontation has not caused excessive or abstention on the field.
"In addition to the example set by the older generation of athletes, there is also the teaching of Premier Zhou." Xu Yinsheng repeatedly mentioned the principle of "friendship first, competition second" put forward by the premier, "Before going to Japan to compete, the premier specially summoned athletes and said, We are not just going to play. ”
Xu Yinsheng said that playing ball is inseparable from politics, and ping-pong diplomacy has made his understanding of "friendship first, competition second" from "quantitative to qualitative change". In the past, his understanding was that the state trained athletes to go abroad to compete, not only to win a few trophies, but also to represent the image of the country. In Nagoya, when Chinese and American athletes who had never known each other, out of kindness to each other, enthusiastically extended their hands to each other and began to "push the big ball with a small ball", Xu Yinsheng suddenly realized that "playing ball can actually make its own contribution to improving relations between the two countries and promoting human peace."
"Reaching out to Cohen shows that Zhuang Zedong's understanding is deeper than mine." Yes, that "chance encounter" was like a butterfly flapping its wings somewhere. In 1972, Nixon visited China, and the two countries began to break the ice. After that, the ice gradually melts. On January 1, 1979, China and the United States formally established diplomatic relations.
The second from the right is Xu Yinsheng.
People-to-people friendship is the basis for the friendship between the two countries
Although he was humble and came from playing "wild road" balls, Xu Yinsheng loved to think about the ball since he was a child, and he also loved to think about the game. In 1964, he went to the national table tennis women's team to make a report on how to play table tennis, which Chairman Mao called "the whole text is full of dialectical materialism, and opposes idealism and any kind of metaphysics at every turn." ”
Similarly, he is still willing to look at it dialectically for the "ice-breaking" period of Sino-US table tennis that he personally experienced. "China and the United States want to change the state of the two countries that have not been in contact with each other for many years, and the leaders of the two sides have been looking for platforms and opportunities. Zhuang Zedong's friendly exchanges with Cohen show that young people in China and the United States are not so full of hatred. He even ventured to guess that "contact through table tennis is just an accident." You say, will other sports be? Will it be on other occasions? I think so. Because it is inevitable that China and the United States will resume exchanges. ”
"Those of us who just did the right thing at the right time and place and played a little bit of a push. That's all. Xu Yinsheng so simply defined what he did 50 years ago.
As a first-hand witness of Sino-US table tennis diplomacy, Xu Yinsheng has participated in many commemorative activities since then, and has also experienced the ups and downs of bilateral relations, "It is not easy to do a good job, and people-to-people friendship is the foundation of friendship between the two countries." ”
Dr. Kissinger, a first-hand witness of the "ice-breaking" in China and the United States, also felt the same way. On April 24, he delivered a video message at the commemoration event, "I have warm memories of this event." In his words, at a time when the United States and China are at odds over certain important issues, "ping-pong diplomacy" represents an expectation of our future.
In the words of Xu Yinsheng, "Everyone must cherish the achievements of 50 years ago."
Column Editor-in-Chief: Hong Junjie Text Editor: Hong Junjie
Source: Author: Hong Junjie