Games People Play: China

The book I read had a lot of information on games that people play inside the walls of China. What really interested me about this book is the section in it about table tennis. In this book it says that even though it is a popular belief that table tennis was made in China it wasn’t. Walter Hamley, a London toy shop owner started the game in 1910. The name he gave this new and fun game was “Gossamer” or “Table Tennis”. Although it was created in China Ping Pong is widespread throughout all of Asia today and the children all around Asia enjoy it as well. America in 1974 normalized relations with Beijing by sending a team or American table tennis players to play against China. Even though the United States lost every game, we started the foundations for a new political era. In 1996, the Chinese table tennis team playing at the Olympics in which was held at Atlanta, Georgia in the United States where China swept away the competition. (Dramer, 1997, page 58-59). Another game that they mentioned in this book is Majiang in which is all about intellect. The game of majiang has four players that play against each other to build or break a wall. Experts believe the game was based on the Great Wall of China in which is so large you could see it all the way from outer space. The majiang tiles look like dominoes and they have been made by superb craftsman out of bone, ivory, bamboo, and jade. (Dramer, 1997, page 19).

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