sofasurfers

Since conversation was severely limited, I invited Axiang to play ping
pong with me. “Uh?” Ping pong! You know, ping pong! Now I understood
that ping pong is so called because it’s onomatopoeic so I made a smal
song and a dance, giving it all the “piiing!” and the “ponggg!”, to no
avail. So I take to my pencil and paper and draw it: “Aaah! Ping pan
cho!”
I also learnt a few more things about the sport. Firstly, how to spot
a ping pong table: no green and white paint job and net fancy
business here – no, no: look for the cement-clad breeze blocks and the
plank of wood, like this one in the local school where we played.

Secondly, the bat is held almost like a pen, thumb and forefinger on
the front (as you’ll see ably demonstrated here)… Obviously, things
got a lot worse before they got better on my side of the ‘net’. And
thirdly, when playing against a 13-year-old boy, it is advisable to
stand a good four feet back from the end of the table. If only someone
had been able to advise me of this.

Post Script

Other sports in China: squash is called “wall ball”, badminton is called “feather ball”