Looking Back on “Ping Pong Diplomacy”

@scottbmcdonald

IN 1971, A THEN 15-YEAR-OLD Judy Bochenski and the rest of the United States table tennis team went to Japan for the world championships. Near the end of the tournament, they received an invitation to visit China for an eight-day tour of the country and some exhibition matches. When the team crossed over from Hong Kong to the mainland on April 10, they became the first outsiders to visit Communist China since 1949.

Now on the 50th anniversary of the event that kicked off “ping pong diplomacy” and with China-U.S. relations again tense, Bochenski (who now goes by her married name Judy Hoarfrost) recalls what she saw in 1971.

Can you describe the moment when you first learned the U.S. table tennis team was invited to China?

Sure. I was on the U.S. team and we were in Nagoya, Japan for the world championships in 1971. And it was at that two-week long