Since the great changes in the table tennis world caused by the involution of the Chinese team at the end of the last century, a global competitive storm has set off in the table tennis world. The era of the former "Deng Demon King" has evolved into a situation in which masters from all over the world compete for impact, and this opportunity for change was triggered by the European Games 30 years ago.
The root of involution
The starting point of the story dates back to 1989, when Deng Yaping won the women's doubles championship at the age of 16, kicking off the ten-year-long era of "Deng Demon King". In that decade, she won 18 world titles with the national team, swept the international arena and topped the world rankings for eight consecutive years. However, due to the large number of Chinese female table tennis masters at that time, the opportunity to enter the national team was limited, and other outstanding players could only choose to find another way.
At the 1994 Hiroshima Asian Games, Deng Yaping lost to Japan's Tomori Koyama in the final. This failure became the fuse of a series of changes, and the tide of involution surged.
The global table tennis scene
The outflow of players caused by involution is like a trickle, permeating all over the world. In the 1994 World Cup, the Chinese team sent Wu Na and Zhang Ling, but lost to the German team in the game. The leader of the German team is Shi Jie, a famous Hebei player who was involuted to Germany that year, and her fellow countryman Gao Jun stepped into the United States. Today, Gao Jun has become the head coach of the U.S. table tennis team, guiding Zhang Jike's former partner Zhou Xin and other powerful players.
The international inheritance of table tennis
It is worth mentioning that Zhang Yu and Zhang Ling, two seniors in the table tennis world, went to live in Japan, and their children Tomokazu Zhang and Meihe Zhang have now become the backbone of Japanese table tennis. In the story of the German team's Koyama Chiri's early victory over Deng Yaping, the current daughter of Kumi Ishikawa of the same team, Kasumi Ishikawa, became the leader of the Japanese team, highlighting the worldwide changes caused by involution.
Bonds between transnational countries
Not only that, but there are also a series of legendary stories of fairy couples in the table tennis world. Maria Shaw, the daughter of the head coach of the Portuguese team, Shaw and Yao Li, has become a leader in Spanish table tennisThe cooperation between the daughter of Guangdong celebrity Luo Yongqiang and the head coach of the Canadian team, Cheng Junya, has made Canadian player Luo Anqi a touch of scenery at the Tokyo Olympics. This series of fetters is intertwined, and the discrete stories caused by the involution have become wonderful legends staged in the table tennis world.
Wall Street** amazed: the pinnacle of table tennis competition is globalized
Wall Street ** marveled at this scene: "Almost all table tennis masters are Chinese. In the past thirty years, the table tennis arena has been dominated by Chinese. Although the brain drain is regrettable, sports have no borders, and the internationalization of table tennis is imperative.
A new chapter in the legacy
A new chapter in the story took place at the 2020 Beijing Youth Table Tennis Championships, where Lin Hanming stood out and became the new men's singles champion. What is remarkable is that his father is Lin Zhigang, a former national player, and his mother is Deng Yaping, the great demon king who rolled up all beings thirty years ago. This inheritance is like a retrospective of the history of table tennis, and it also marks the emergence of a new generation of table tennis masters, and continues to carry forward the international trend brought by involution.
Thirty years of involution change, table tennis from prosperity to decline and then to today's prosperity, all reflect the richness and colorfulness of table tennis. The outflow of Chinese masters has added a new color to the world table tennis arena, and has also made the table tennis arena more diversified and competitive. The internationalization trend brought about by involution has made this sport show a more brilliant picture in the world.