{"id":21872,"date":"2014-03-24T08:00:13","date_gmt":"2014-03-24T13:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs2.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/?p=21872"},"modified":"2014-03-15T10:26:51","modified_gmt":"2014-03-15T15:26:51","slug":"ping-pong-diplomacy-by-nicholas-griffin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/ping-pong-diplomacy-by-nicholas-griffin\/","title":{"rendered":"Ping Pong Diplomacy by Nicholas Griffin"},"content":{"rendered":"<p align=\"left\"><a href=\"http:\/\/rivershare.polarislibrary.com\/search\/title.aspx?cn=1036510\" target=\"_blank\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-21873\" alt=\"ping pong\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/ping-pong.jpg?resize=266%2C400&#038;ssl=1\" width=\"266\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/ping-pong.jpg?w=266&amp;ssl=1 266w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/ping-pong.jpg?resize=199%2C300&amp;ssl=1 199w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 266px) 100vw, 266px\" \/><\/a>The spring of 1971 heralded the greatest geopolitical realignment in a generation. After twenty-two years of antagonism, China and the United States suddenly moved toward a d\u00e9tente achieved not by politicians but by Ping-Pong players.<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">The Western press delighted in the absurdity of the moment and branded it &#8220;Ping-Pong Diplomacy.&#8221; But for the Chinese, Ping-Pong was always political, a strategic cog in Mao Zedong&#8217;s foreign policy. Nicholas Griffin proves that the organized game, from its first breath, was tied to Communism thanks to its founder, Ivor Montagu, son of a wealthy English baron and spy for the Soviet Union.<a href=\"http:\/\/rivershare.polarislibrary.com\/search\/title.aspx?cn=1036510\" target=\"_blank\"><em><strong> Ping-Pong Diplomacy<\/strong><\/em><\/a> traces a crucial inter-section of sports and society. Griffin tells the strange and tragic story of how the game was manipulated at the highest levels; how the Chinese government helped cover up the death of 36 million peasants by holding the World Table Tennis Championships during the Great Famine; how championship players were driven to their deaths during the Cultural Revolution; and, finally, how the survivors were reconvened in 1971 and ordered to reach out to their American counterparts.<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">Through a cast of eccentric characters, from spies to hippies and Ping-Pong-obsessed generals to atom-bomb survivors, Griffin explores how a neglected sport was used to help realign the balance of worldwide power. <em>(description from publisher)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The spring of 1971 heralded the greatest geopolitical realignment in a generation. After twenty-two years of antagonism, China and the United States suddenly moved toward a d\u00e9tente achieved not by politicians but by Ping-Pong players. The Western press delighted in the absurdity of the moment and branded it &#8220;Ping-Pong Diplomacy.&#8221;<a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/ping-pong-diplomacy-by-nicholas-griffin\/\">[Read more]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10],"tags":[87,662,2611,2610,179],"class_list":["post-21872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","tag-china","tag-communism","tag-diplomats","tag-international-politics","tag-sports"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd0CXx-5GM","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21872"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21872\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21874,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21872\/revisions\/21874"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}