Table Tennis of China, 1959 - 1999, a VCD collection

The publisher of the Chinese Table-Tennis World magazine, partnering with the Chinese Table-Tennis Association, has produced a set of 10 VCD's called "Table Tennis of China 1959-1989". This is a commemoration of the 40th anniversary of China's first world sports title: Rong Guotuan winning the Mens Singles world championship in 1959. The set retails for 240 yuan (renmenbi), which is approximately US$30. It is not available for mail-order outside of China, but within China one can order the set by mail, or buy it at local sports stores.

The set captures almost all of China's historically significant matches during the last 40 years, starting with Rong's victory over Sido, through the last Worlds when Ma Lin fought his way to the final match against teammate Liu Guoliang. For anyone interested in the sport, or the sports history of China, the set is invaluable. There are 60 "match examples" in the 10 discs. I have attached scanned pictures of the cover and the index here for those who could read Chinese. For those who could not, here are some of the highlights:

* Rong vs Sido in 1959.
* China vs Japan in 1961 and 1963.
* Chinese first women's singles champion: Qui Zhonghui.
* China capturing the first 4 places in Men's singles.
* Japan's first victory over chopper Zhang Xielin.
* The three finals between Zhuang Zedong and Li Furong.
* Ping Pong Diplomacy.
* Men's team losing to Sweden at the 32nd Worlds.
* Xi Enting's run for the title.
* Men's team final against Yugoslavia at the 33rd Worlds.
* Men's team loss to Hungary at the 35th Worlds.
* The revenge vitory at the 36th Worlds.
* Cai Zhenhua's 30-28 victory over Waldner.
* Cao Yenhua capturing the women's singles title.
* Jiang losing to Lindh at the '88 Olympics.
* China losing 0-5 to Sweden at the '89 Worlds.
* Wang Tao and Lu Lin winning the Olympics title.
* The near miss at the '93 Worlds.
* Winning the team title at the '95 Worlds.
* Victory over France at the '97 Worlds.
* Ma Lin against Samsonov and Waldner in '99.
* Liu/Kong against Samsonov/Primorac in doubles in '99.
* The Liu-Ma final.

Since the video content spans a period of 40 years, the quality varies from pretty good to barely acceptable. The VCD technology is based on MPEG compression, and some of the fast action appears to be jagged, and not smooth like video from tape. But overall it is quite watchable. I find the quality actually is better on my PC (P2-400, 21" monitor, Matrox G200 video-card, 256MB RAM) than that on my TV with a Toshiba 3109 DVD player. The commentary is in Mandarin, but the action speaks for itself.

The life of Rong Guotuan is one of the greatest tragedies in recent Chinese history. Born in Hong Kong, Rong went back to China in the mid-50's with a burning desire to bring glory to his homeland. Quickly he won the national championship, and as a relatively unknown player, overcame immense odds to win the men's singles title at the Dortmond Worlds in 1959. This was the first world title ever won by a Chinese, and started a sports dynasty that is still going strong 40 years later. Rong helped China win the team title in '61 and '63, and retired to become the women's team head-coach, leading that team to victory in the '65 Worlds. Then came the Cultural Revolution, one of the most senseless events of the 20th century. Rong, a victim of his success, was relentlessly persecuted and tortured by Red Guards, and forced to commit suicide in 1968. There were 2 other top table-tennis figures who also died within months of Rong's death; this period was one of the darkest in China's sports history. How a few people in power could unleash such rage upon a whole country is unfathomable today. The Cultural Revolution set the country back decades, and left such ruins that 30 years later its effects are still deeply felt.

Despite the uneven video quality, this is a great set, and with its nice packaging, bound to be a collector item. I highly recommend it.

Chung

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