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God’s Grace and Ping Pong

by Wei Hu, associate professor of mathematics and computer science

One of the first public hints of improved U.S.-China relations came in 1971, when the American ping-pong team received a surprise invitation from their Chinese colleagues for a visit to the People’s Republic. When nine players, four officials and two spouses stepped across a bridge from Hong Kong to the Chinese mainland, they were the first group of Americans allowed into China since the Communist takeover in 1949.

“Ping-Pong diplomacy” had a huge impact on the young people in China, stirring a great interest in the sport. I started to play that year, training at a ping-pong school in my hometown. Even though I was not good enough to make it my career, I benefited in many ways from the three years of intense training: two hours in the morning (6–8) and four hours in the afternoon (1-5), Monday through Saturday. It taught me to work hard and to focus on the basic skills. Spending a lot of time learning the basics seems boring and slow, but it is the foundation to winning games in a tournament.

Now, I always emphasize the importance of learning the basic concepts in my teaching at Houghton. God’s grace brought me from China to the U.S., and I regard my teaching position at Houghton as a privilege.

     Two years ago, I started offering a ping-pong class during Mayterm. I am deeply impressed that quite a few of our students

love the game. I enjoy teaching the class; it provides me a different channel to interact

with students, many of whom I otherwise

would not know.