.jpg) Zhuang Zedong in 2007 (photo: Tom Nguyen) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Nationality | Chinese | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | (1940-08-25)25 August 1940 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Died | 10 February 2013(2013-02-10) (aged 72) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | Table tennis | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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| Zhuang Zedong | |||||||||
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| Traditional Chinese | 莊則棟 | ||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 庄则栋 | ||||||||
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Zhuang Zedong (Chuang Tse-tung; August 25, 1940 – February 10, 2013)[1] was a Chinesetable tennis player, three-timeworld men's singles champion and champion at numerous other table tennis events. These accomplishments lead Zhuang as one of the greatest table tennis players of all time. And a well-known political personality during the tumult of theCultural Revolution. His chance meeting with American table tennis player,Glenn Cowan, during the 31stWorld Table Tennis Championship, later referred to asping-pong diplomacy, triggered the first thawing of the ice inSino-American relations since 1949. Zhuang was once married to the pianist Bao Huiqiao, and his second wife was the Chinese-born Japanese Atsuko Sasaki.[2]
Zhuang was born in August 1940 and he joined the Chinese National Table Tennis team as a teenager. His coach wasFu Qifang. In 1961, at the26th World Table Tennis Championship, he won his first men's singles championship, and at the next two World Table Tennis Championships, the27th and28th in 1963 and 1965 respectively, he again won the men's singles championship.[2]
On January 20, 1968, two years into theCultural Revolution, he married Bao Huiqiao in herdormitory room at theNational Music Conservatory inBeijing. During theCultural Revolution which began in 1966, Zhuang was not able to pursue his career as a table tennis player as usual, nor was Bao hers as a pianist.
Influenced by a veteran national team member and national championWang Chuanyao, and encouraged by his coach, Zhuang picked up the "Dual-sided Offense" style in the 1950s when he was a teenager.[3]
During the 50s to 60s, the majority of thepen-holding style players lacked attacking or counter-attack capabilities on the backhand side, and relied solely on push-blocking. Wang is believed to be among the pioneers of the "Penholding Dual-sided Offense" style that emphasize on offensive backhand strokes and drives.
Zhuang adopted but modified Wang's style by:
He did so as a result of his meticulous analysis of the physical differences between him and Wang – Wang was much taller and had a longer arm-coverage which enabled bigger, more powerful swings and strokes.
Zhuang had to streamline his strokes and instead attempted to generate a sudden burst of explosive power via a smaller motion, similar to the "one-inch punch" in theWing Chun Kung Fu style.
He won and dominated three World Championships with this unique style, and encountered almost no competition from the Japanese, European and his fellow Chinese players. Table tennis observers generally believe that he could have won one to two more world championships if theCultural Revolution had not occurred. This is evidenced by the fact the next two champions both had lopsided losing records against Zhuang during the time when the Chinese team did not participate during the Cultural Revolution.
In late 1969, the training of the National Table Tennis Team resumed as a result of the intervention of PremierZhou Enlai, and in 1971, Zhuang Zedong and the Chinese team attended the 31stWorld Table Tennis Championship. One day during the championship inNagoya, Japan, American team memberGlenn Cowan missed his own bus and in his haste got onto the bus of the Chinese team. Unlike his team mates, who ignored Cowan due to the political disagreements between their countries, Zhuang Zedong greeted him and presented him with a silk-screen portrait of theHuangshan Mountains, thus starting the so-calledping-pong diplomacy. The ping-pong diplomacy was a great example of man-man during this time to prove that groups from opposing countries could come together and be civil.[4][5] Ten months after Zhuang's chance meeting with Cowan,Richard Nixon, then president of the United States, visited China in February, 1972 to show faith in the Chinese government. Only two months later, Zhuang led the Chinese table tennis delegation to the United States from April[6]: 141 18 to 30, as part of an 18-day trip includingCanada,Mexico andPeru. American media during Zhuang's trip highlighted friendly encounters between the Chinese players and Americans.[6]: 141
This brought the two countries together and started to help China's revolution by creating allies.The ping-pong diplomacy eventually led to the normalization ofSino-American relationships in 1979.
In 1973, Zhuang Zedong became a favorite ofJiang Qing, wife ofMao Zedong. After the downfall in October, 1976 of theGang of Four of which Jiang Qing was a member, Zhuang Zedong was jailed and investigated.[5] In 1980, the investigation ended and he was sent toTaiyuan,Shanxi to work as a coach of the provincial table tennis team.Following Mao Zedong's death in 1976, Zhuang was investigated because of his links to theGang of Four.[7]
In 1985, Zhuang was allowed to return to Beijing again, and it was arranged that he would coach the young table tennis players at thePalace of Youth in Beijing. Zhuang's relationship with Bao Huiqiao had been reportedly deteriorating during the tumultuous years of the Cultural Revolution and was not to be repaired. On February 2, 1985, he and Bao Huiqiao were officially divorced.[8] They had one daughter and one son before their divorce.[9]
About this time, Zhuang Zedong published his bookChuang Yu Chuang (闯与创, "Adventure and Creation").[3]
Later in 1985, the Chinese-born Japanese Atsuko Sasaki (佐々木敦子) (Chinese:佐佐木敦子;pinyin:Zuǒzuǒmù Dūnzǐ) met Zhuang in Beijing. Sasaki was born in 1944 inZhangye,Gansu, China (a settlement at no point occupied byJapanese forces) to Japanese parents. Her family did not move back to Japan until 1976. By this time, Sasaki had finished her high-school education in China and her father had died ofcancer inLanzhou. Sasaki Atsuko had met Zhuang Zedong previously in Japan in 1971 and 1972 and was a fan of Zhuang.
When Zhuang and Sasaki decided to get married, both had to go through a difficult political process due to the political environment in China. Zhuang had to write toLi Ruihuan andDeng Xiaoping about the matter, and Sasaki had to give up her Japanese citizenship and apply for Chinese citizenship. Eventually, Zhuang and Sasaki got married in 1987.[10]
Zhuang and Sasaki lived together for 26 years. Zhuang wrote a book about their story, entitledDeng Xiaoping approved our marriage. Zhuang opened an international table tennis club in Beijing. He visited the United States in 2007, speaking at USC and other universities about his role in fostering better relations between China and the United States.[4]
In 2008, Zhuang Zedong was diagnosed withlate-stagecolon cancer. Although he sought treatment in various hospitals around China, the tumourmetastasized to his liver and lungs. Five months before his death, he only had one eighth of his liver left. He requestedeuthanasia, but this request was denied by his doctors.[11] On 10 February 2013, the first day of theChinese New Year, Zhuang died at You'an Hospital in Beijing,[11] at the age of 72.[12] Within a day there were 300,000 messages about his death onChinese microblogging sites.[11]
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