Roger Bennett - Everything you know is pong: how mighty table tennis shapes our world

HOW MIGHTY TABLE TENNIS
SHAPES OUR WORLD

ROGER BENNETT & ELI HOROWITZ

To Nigel and Jamie, with thanks for all the lessons
you taught me on and off the table. And to Eric Kirsch, one of the
greatest the Manchester Jewish Table Tennis League has
ever seen.RB

To my father and brother, for teaching me how to lose,
and my mother, for tolerating the destruction.EH

First place trophy for a local ping pong
tournament won by the book designers father.

Diane (a lefty) and Rosalind (a righty) Rowetwins and world doubles champions, 1951.

E very sport claims to be the worlds gamesoccer, basketball, kabbadi. But few can match the global status acquired by modest yet ubiquitous ping pong: constant but never ascendant, unconcerned with macho posturing, all the while secreting its fingerprints across popular culture. From Fidel Castro to Prince Charles, Thelonious Monk to 50 Cent, George Foreman to Arnold Schwarzenegger, Charlie Chaplin to Ellen DeGeneresall have clutched a paddle, all have peered across the net with menacing intent. If you throw in a billion hard-core Chinese aficionados, it is no empty boast to claim that ping pong is the most popular yet misunderstood pastime in the world todaythe sleeping giant of fast-paced fun.

Ping pongs unvanquished strength lies, paradoxically, in its shabby exterior. Amid the rapid cycles of our worlds escalating media omniscience, todays obscure Brazilian hobby becomes tomorrows Hollywood blockbuster overnight, leaving no time to develop the depth and richness that can be forged only through generations of basement heroics. Neglected by the corporate hunger for the New New New Thing, ping pong has been allowed to flourish in dark corners and distant alleys around the world, nurturing a wealth oflore, legends, and die-hard fans. It is the magma lurking beneath the Earths crust, piping hot and eternally bubbling.

Other sports may have cross-cultural appeal, but theirs is the appeal of a spreading hegemony; an NBA fan in Shanghai wears the same Melo jersey as an NBA fan in Sheboygan. The power of ping pong, however, lies in its adaptability. Its touch is ubiquitous but gentlea caress, not a clutch. Neither jihad nor McDonalds, ping pong does not crush local mores nor homogenize for profit, fluttering mothlike to any bright light. It thrives in suburban sheds and Bangkok backrooms, providing a stage upon which countless daily dramas are performed. A global community of a thousand different villages, each a little world in itselfNew Jersey rec rooms, Beijing stadia, dwarf child champions, elderly enthusiasts, Hollywood hipsters, perky porn starsall united by a shared humanity, all noble in their idiosyncrasies. Thomas Freidman claimed that the world is flat; nay, Thomas, we saythe world is round, plastic, and always spinning.

This game brought the two of us together as well: one a chiseler, the other a modified wiper, but joined in a common hunger. When we are not playing the game itself, we can be found immersing ourselves in the ripples left in its wake, amassing a treasury of artifacts unearthed in garages, thrift shops, and archives around the world. From our headquarters on opposite coasts, we have hunted these photos and factoids, the data and detritus, the posters, postcards, and phone cards, driven by a belief that this ever-growing collection offers a glimpse of a hidden kingdom, a realm where culture, politics, love, and war collide. For others, ping pong may amount to little more than a fancy. To us, it is an oracle, a palantir, a Magic 8-Ball that is never wrong.

And so, with the aid of our friends and fellow enthusiasts, it is our honor to present this talea story of a thousand smaller stories, a story in which we are all vital characters, a billion tiny balls bouncing back and forth upon an endless globe. Welcome to this worldour world, your world, the world behind the world. A world in which everything you know is pong.