[Archive] Xu Yinsheng’s Monologue Vol. 3: “We learned the phrase ‘No advance means retreat’ from our failures.”

Listening to Xu Yinsheng, a witness to the history of Chinese table tennis, would have required far more than a few hours of interview time. Even so, he took aim at the issue of “victor manipulation,” a taboo topic in the Chinese table tennis world. To a question that people once hesitated even to voice, he replied shrewdly.

The Chinese table tennis world has changed. That is likely because the society surrounding table tennis in China has changed dramatically as well. In the midst of that upheaval, Xu Yinsheng turned his eyes to the flow of history and sent a message to the world, and to Japan. <2009>

Translation = Iseki Kinuko, Xie Jing, and Yanagisawa Taro   Photos = Takahashi Kazuhiro  Cooperation = Ping Pong World

We learned the phrase “No advance means retreat” from our failures. Even at the peak of our success, we must fully anticipate the trends in the development of table tennis.

Xu Yinsheng / Xu Yinsheng (Jo Yinsei)
Born May 12, 1938, in Shanghai. The youngest of eight siblings. His playing style was right-handed penhold, short pips fast attack. In 1955, while attending Shanghai Guangda Middle School, he joined the Shanghai student team, and the following year the Shanghai city team. In 1959, he joined the national team and made his first appearance at that year's World Championships in Dortmund. At the 26th World Table Tennis Championships in 1961, he was a key Player on the men's team and helped China achieve its first men's team title. He competed in four consecutive World Championships through the 1965 Ljubljana event. He won a total of four gold medals: three in the men's team event and one in men's Dobles. He was praised as “Zhiduoxing” for his clever play. In 1977, he became vice chairman of the State Physical Culture and Sports Commission (now the General Administration of Sport of China), effectively vice minister of sports, and in 1979 he became the second president of the Chinese Table Tennis Association, serving for 30 years as the leader of Chinese table tennis. In 1995, he succeeded Rolf Hama Land as the fifth president of the International Table Tennis Federation (and stepped down in 1999). In 2009, he stepped down as president of the Chinese Table Tennis Association and became its honorary president.

I think the “innovation” of Chinese table tennis has also contributed. But Japan used to be even more amazing.

After the 1965 World Championships, China was affected by the domestic power struggle known as the “Cultural Revolution,” and the table tennis team disappeared from the international stage, only to return at the 1971 Nagoya event. But in the 1970s, China itself suffered the aftereffects. Players such as Li Jingguang, Xi Enting, Liang Geliang, Ge Xinxia, Lu Yuansheng, and Guo Yuehua repeatedly went through trial and error every time China entered a tournament, with reforms to playing styles and equipment, as well as the emergence of Players known as “secret weapons.”

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Xu Yinsheng　Chinese table tennis has always sought change. I think Chinese table tennis’s “innovation” has also contributed to the development of world table tennis. But Japan used to be even more amazing. When the “mythical” loop drive developed by Japan appeared, the world table tennis scene was thrown into turmoil. Japan also developed the inverted rubber.

　In recent years, various rule reforms have been introduced to make table tennis a more exciting sport to watch, and we sometimes joke, “If we were to restrict the loop drive and ban the use of inverted rubber, table tennis matches would become much more interesting.” Of course, in reality, it would be the exact opposite. You can’t turn back time, and it would hardly be a match at all.