Of course, it was deemed an upset when Japanese pair Jun Mizutani and Mima Ito beat Xu Xin and Liu Shiwen 4-3 for the mixed doubles title in the Olympic Games in Tokyo. Afterall, Pīngpāng qiú, 乒乓球 or ping pong or table tennis as we know it; is a popular sport in China. In fact, after the founding of the PRC in 1949, Mao Zedong made it China's national sport even though the game actually originated in the late-19th century in England rather than China. That was for the sheer low-maintenance and low-space accorded by the game; very well suited for a then impoverished China. Since 1959, after Rong Guotuan won the world's first table tennis championship,Chinese players have dominated the game in the international scene. The Japanese upset has come five years after the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games; then, China won all the table tennis tournaments. Then, of course China could still seek solace from the fact that some Chinese players represented their adopted countries in the 2021 Tokyo Games:
🇨🇦 CANADA - Mo Zhang
🇺🇸 USA - Juan Liu
🇺🇸 USA - Lily Zhang
🇫🇷 FRANCE - Jia Nan
🇩🇪 GERMANY - Ying Han
🇪🇸 SPAIN Maria Xiao
🇦🇹 AUSTRIA - Jian Fang Lay
🇵🇹 PORTUGAL - Shao Jie Ni
This probably isn't the way ping pong is played!
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