［Archive: Monologue of Xu Yinsheng Vol. 2］“Even if it is a cutting-edge technology for the time being, unless it keeps developing, it will inevitably become obsolete and ultimately be eliminated.”

China did not reach the throne of the world smoothly without any hardship. In the 1960s, through the power struggle of the Cultural Revolution, people involved in table tennis also went through hard times and even lost comrades. After those negative years, how did they build such a rock-solid kingdom?
Witness to the history of Chinese table tennis—Xu Yinsheng. In the storm of reform, the charismatic figure who has seen both the dark and bright sides of the history of Chinese table tennis speaks about his past. ＜2009＞

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

“A single playing style, a single approach, may be cutting-edge technology for a time, but unless it keeps developing, it will inevitably become outdated and, in the end, be replaced.”

Xu Yinsheng / Xu Yinsheng (Jo Insei)
Born May 12, 1938, from Shanghai. Born as the youngest of eight siblings. His style was a right-handed penhold short pips fast attack style. 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 debut at the World Championships Dortmund tournament that same year. At the 26th World Table Tennis Championships in 1961, as a key player on the men’s team, he contributed to China’s first men’s team victory. He competed in four consecutive World Championships through the Ljubljana tournament in 1965. He won a total of four gold medals: three in men’s team and one in men’s doubles. His clever style of play earned him praise as “Zhiduoxing.” In 1977, he was appointed deputy director of the State Physical Culture and Sports Commission (now the General Administration of Sport of China), and in 1979 he became the second president of the Chinese Table Tennis Association, serving as the top figure in Chinese table tennis for 30 years. In 1995, he succeeded Lollo Hammarlund as the fifth president of the International Table Tennis Federation (retired in 1999). In 2009, he stepped down as president of the Chinese Table Tennis Association and became honorary president.

Our victory at the 1961 Beijing tournament caused a huge reaction across China. After all, it was the first time China had won a World Championships title.

In his book, the late Ogimura Ichiro—former president of the International Table Tennis Federation and world champion—once wrote that China may have thought, “If Japanese people, who are also Asians and have similar body types, can win in the world, then we should be able to win too. In the midst of domestic turmoil, perhaps China put its energy into table tennis in order to win on the world stage.” Soon after the founding of the country, table tennis was chosen as a sport to boost national prestige, achieved results, and truly gave strength to the Chinese people. Thus table tennis became the “national sport,” nurtured by the country as a political sport and drawing increasing attention.

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Xu Yinsheng　I think table tennis is a sport suited to Asians, including Chinese people. Asian players are relatively agile, and their bodies are more flexible than European players. And for Asian players, who are physically smaller than European players, the fact that table tennis does not involve physical contact is also an important factor.

　Also, in the 1960s, penhold was the mainstream among Asian players, while shakehand was mainstream in Europe. As a minority, penhold players could adapt more easily to the majority shakehand players; conversely, European shakehand players, with fewer penhold players to face, found it difficult to respond. By making use of agility and quick thinking, Asia was able to play more varied table tennis than Europe.

　Our victory at the 1961 Beijing tournament caused a huge reaction across China. In addition to the fact that it was a tournament held at home, China had won the team event at a World Championships for the first time. At that time, television had not yet become widespread, so people listened to match updates on the radio. Let me give one example of that frenzy. After we won the men’s team event and cleaned the venue, many personal belongings of the excited crowd, such as hats and scarves, were found scattered around, apparently dropped when they lost control of themselves.