Ping-Pong Diplomacy by Nicholas Griffin
Jan. 16th, 2014 03:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
The spring of 1971 brought the greatest geopolitical realignment in a generation. After twenty-two years of antagonism, China and the United States suddenly moved towards a détente – instigated not by politicians but by ping-pong players.
Ping-Pong Diplomacy proves that the dramatic shift can be traced back to Ivor Montagu, the son of a wealthy English baron, producer to Alfred Hitchcock, friend of H. G. Wells, Charlie Chaplin and Leon Trotsky, codifier of table tennis and a spy for the Soviet Union. As chairman of the game’s International Federation, Montagu had hoped that table tennis would help spread Communism around the world. With his help, the game was established as China’s national sport and quickly became a cog in Mao Zedong’s foreign policy.
Griffin unravels the strange story of how the game was manipulated at the highest levels; how Mao used it to help cover up the death of millions during the Great Famine; how championship players were condemned and tortured during the Cultural Revolution; and finally how the survivors were reconvened in 1971 and ordered to reach out to their American counterparts. Through a cast of eccentric characters, from the King of England, to spies, hippies, ping-pong-obsessed generals and atom bomb survivors, Griffin explores how a neglected British sport incited a realignment of world super powers.
Ivor Montagu took table-tennis from parlour room novelty to international sport. But Montagu’s desire to promote the game arose from the fact that as a Communist he saw it as a way to promote Communist ideology and possibly even revolution among other countries. An aristocrat by birth, he spied on his country and turned on his friends, his only loyalty was to serving the Soviet state. In this book, Nicholas Griffin recounts Montagu’s creation of the International Table Tennis Association and its impact on international diplomacy, culminating in the historic visit of the US table tennis team to China in 1971, which led to a détente between the two countries.
There’s a lot of interesting material here, particularly on the US tour of China, which forms the lynchpin of the book with Griffin’s considerable research including interviews with tour members and their relatives. However, I couldn’t help but find it a superficial read with Griffin never really substantiating all of the arguments that he makes and the book really suffers from a lack of any real characters to drive the story forward.
For example although Montagu is the supposed main personality in the book there’s little sense of who he was as a person. There’s no explanation for what converted him to Communism or whether he felt any guilt at the way he turned on Trotsky (a supposed friend) or horror at the realities of what Stalin’s rule meant. Griffin also makes suggestions that don’t seem to be supported by the facts – e.g. he discusses the possibility of Montagu obtaining information from his brother Ewan who was on the XX committee in World War II (and who knew of his brother’s Communist leanings) and giving it to Stalin but several pages later he also reveals that Kim Philby was on that committee and would surely have been the more likely leak. Similarly, there’s an intriguing quote from Montagu as to how he couldn’t bear the touch of either sex and yet he gets married in later life to a divorcee with children, a marriage that horrifies his family.
The depiction of the impact of the Great Famine and Cultural Revolution is deft and horrifying and for me the most interesting sections are those that show how it closed in on the Chinese team. Ultimately though, there’s just not enough depth here for it to rise above an okay read.
The Verdict:
In this book, Nicholas Griffin recounts Ivor Montagu’s creation of the International Table Tennis Association and its impact on international diplomacy, culminating in the historic visit of the US table tennis team to China in 1971, which led to a détente between the two countries. There’s a lot of interesting material here, particularly on the US tour of China, which forms the lynchpin of the book with Griffin’s considerable research including interviews with tour members and their relatives. However, I couldn’t help but find it a superficial read with Griffin never really substantiating all of the arguments that he makes and the book really suffers from a lack of any real characters to drive the story forward.
PING-PONG DIPLOMACY: IVOR MONTAGU AND THE ASTONISHING STORY BEHIND THE GAME THAT CHANGED THE WORLD was released in the United Kingdom on 2nd January 2014. Thanks to Simon & Schuster for the free copy of this book.
Ping-Pong Diplomacy proves that the dramatic shift can be traced back to Ivor Montagu, the son of a wealthy English baron, producer to Alfred Hitchcock, friend of H. G. Wells, Charlie Chaplin and Leon Trotsky, codifier of table tennis and a spy for the Soviet Union. As chairman of the game’s International Federation, Montagu had hoped that table tennis would help spread Communism around the world. With his help, the game was established as China’s national sport and quickly became a cog in Mao Zedong’s foreign policy.
Griffin unravels the strange story of how the game was manipulated at the highest levels; how Mao used it to help cover up the death of millions during the Great Famine; how championship players were condemned and tortured during the Cultural Revolution; and finally how the survivors were reconvened in 1971 and ordered to reach out to their American counterparts. Through a cast of eccentric characters, from the King of England, to spies, hippies, ping-pong-obsessed generals and atom bomb survivors, Griffin explores how a neglected British sport incited a realignment of world super powers.
Ivor Montagu took table-tennis from parlour room novelty to international sport. But Montagu’s desire to promote the game arose from the fact that as a Communist he saw it as a way to promote Communist ideology and possibly even revolution among other countries. An aristocrat by birth, he spied on his country and turned on his friends, his only loyalty was to serving the Soviet state. In this book, Nicholas Griffin recounts Montagu’s creation of the International Table Tennis Association and its impact on international diplomacy, culminating in the historic visit of the US table tennis team to China in 1971, which led to a détente between the two countries.
There’s a lot of interesting material here, particularly on the US tour of China, which forms the lynchpin of the book with Griffin’s considerable research including interviews with tour members and their relatives. However, I couldn’t help but find it a superficial read with Griffin never really substantiating all of the arguments that he makes and the book really suffers from a lack of any real characters to drive the story forward.
For example although Montagu is the supposed main personality in the book there’s little sense of who he was as a person. There’s no explanation for what converted him to Communism or whether he felt any guilt at the way he turned on Trotsky (a supposed friend) or horror at the realities of what Stalin’s rule meant. Griffin also makes suggestions that don’t seem to be supported by the facts – e.g. he discusses the possibility of Montagu obtaining information from his brother Ewan who was on the XX committee in World War II (and who knew of his brother’s Communist leanings) and giving it to Stalin but several pages later he also reveals that Kim Philby was on that committee and would surely have been the more likely leak. Similarly, there’s an intriguing quote from Montagu as to how he couldn’t bear the touch of either sex and yet he gets married in later life to a divorcee with children, a marriage that horrifies his family.
The depiction of the impact of the Great Famine and Cultural Revolution is deft and horrifying and for me the most interesting sections are those that show how it closed in on the Chinese team. Ultimately though, there’s just not enough depth here for it to rise above an okay read.
The Verdict:
In this book, Nicholas Griffin recounts Ivor Montagu’s creation of the International Table Tennis Association and its impact on international diplomacy, culminating in the historic visit of the US table tennis team to China in 1971, which led to a détente between the two countries. There’s a lot of interesting material here, particularly on the US tour of China, which forms the lynchpin of the book with Griffin’s considerable research including interviews with tour members and their relatives. However, I couldn’t help but find it a superficial read with Griffin never really substantiating all of the arguments that he makes and the book really suffers from a lack of any real characters to drive the story forward.
PING-PONG DIPLOMACY: IVOR MONTAGU AND THE ASTONISHING STORY BEHIND THE GAME THAT CHANGED THE WORLD was released in the United Kingdom on 2nd January 2014. Thanks to Simon & Schuster for the free copy of this book.
