Ping-pong diplomacy

Ambassador Latheef clearly remembers the first time that he was taken by a Chinese man to play table tennis at a park in Beijing.

It was about five years ago. Ambassador Latheef, who was a newcomer to China at that time, was practicing alone on a court in the compound he lives in. "Beautiful shot! Beautiful!" Suddenly, he heard cheers from a stranger, a Chinese man sitting on his bicycle, watching him playing from a short distance away.

Minutes later, the man came back, changed into his sports clothes. He didn't look very athletic, not like a sportsman, but he beat Ambassador Latheef.

"I am also a ping-pong player," the ambassador told the man after the game. So the Chinese man invited him for another match the next day.

But the following day, the man, who was called Lao Xie, invited Ambassador Latheef to perch on the back of his bicycle. Lao Xie peddled, crossing roads, until they finally arrived at a park, where the ambassador saw a lot of Chinese people playing ping-pong, the national game of the country.

Only after a few moves, Lao Xie, a professional driver, was surprised to find that the foreigner's level was higher than he expected. And everybody who was standing by, watching them play, wanted to play against the skilful foreigner.

"My exploration in ping-pong in different folk clubs in Beijing started ever since," recalls Ahmed Latheef, ambassador of the Embassy of the Republic of Maldives.　

Foreign fans

"I rarely met expats playing ping-pong in Beijing's clubs," says the 56-year-old ambassador. But it doesn't matter, as he believes that playing with Chinese players of different levels with different styles and skills in different places, outdoor or indoor, would make the game more exciting and interesting.

"It's a way to know a lot of Chinese people in an unofficial way," the ambassador says. Since he came to Beijing, he's played with amateurs, semi-professionals or professional players, and even Deng Yaping, the retired "Queen of ping-pong", who won four gold medals in the Olympic Games in 1992 and 1996.

Ambassador Latheef had an extraordinary ping-pong career, before becoming a diplomat. The small but tough man started the game aged 14, when his taller and bigger peers at school were selected to play soccer and other games.

The small ball has provided him with great opportunities. In 1973, 17-year-old Latheef traveled to China for an international table tennis tournament. In 1990, he became a member of the Maldivian national ping-pong team to compete in the Asian Games in Beijing.

Latheef's friend, Adrien Laborie, is another foreign table tennis enthusiast in Beijing. The 30-year-old Frenchman, who works as a manager in the International Communication Department of Lenovo, a computer company, also likes going to various clubs in town playing with regular Chinese folk. Every week, he plays three to five times.

Laborie was taken with ping-pong when he learned the game aged 14 at school. He's never been professionally trained, as he used to believe that practicing through matches was the best way to improve.

But the experience of playing ping-pong in China changed his mind. "There are so many different rubbers, pads and skills in China, in order to find the rubber and pad that suits me best, I have to practice a lot first," he says, "Now I understand that regular practice was quite important."

International team

Although expat ping-pong lovers may like practicing individually, forming teams to compete in amateur tournaments gives them opportunities to meet and coach each other.

Assembled by Latheef, Laborie and other players from Hungary and Russia formed an "international" team to participate in a tournament for the city's players of all ages at Peking University last year. Laborie, who played in the 18 to 30 group, was amazed by the scale and standard of the tournament.

He encountered strong opponents. Although qualifying for the second round after a tough game, he was beaten by a young Chinese player, who eventually placed third.　

"I don't have a professional coach," he says, "And foreign players in Beijing often coach each other in tournaments, because sometimes it's easier to discover others' problems."

The expat table tennis fans have impressed their Chinese counterparts, who are naturally proud of China's global domination of the game.

"Foreigners are very smart at playing ping-pong as well. For example, they were skilled in asking for timeout during a game," says a Chinese ping-pong lover, surnamed Li, who participated in a tournament in 2010 in which he encountered Laborie and other foreign players.

"I guessed they were not that strong, but in fact they were quite competitive," Li recalls, "they were serious toward games, acting like they were in an international game. Very cute!"

Different styles

Chinese people believe that one can judge a person by his or her playing style, but their approach to the game is rather different from foreigners.　

For example, foreigners tend to be more polite, while Chinese players may be more aggressive.

Laborie explains, "Whenever there is a net/edge ball (the ball hits the net or edge of the table and changes direction), I notice only few Chinese players will apologize whereas most foreigners know that it's a bit embarrassing to do that, which was not done on purpose."

Meanwhile, Chinese people might be more "into" the game. Young players are taught to shout and encourage themselves as well as impressing opponents after they win a point, "I heard some battle cries, especially if the point was important," says Laborie.

"Chinese like to have dinner after the game and celebrate together," he says, "I'm always invited to dinner, and I love it. For foreigners, when the training is over, then everybody gets home and sleep."

The expats have also established their own tournaments. Since moving to Beijing in 2008, Ambassador Latheef has met many diplomatic ping-pong fans, and started arranging tournaments for them too. Last year, the tournament attracted about 100 foreigners working for 32 embassies.

"Many foreign players have left over the past years and new faces come in," Ambassador Latheef smiles, "but ping-pong is one of the bridges that collects us together."