Early ADS WOTY nominations posted

[Mark Mandel]

The China link is also how I remember it... and you need look no further
than Google's first two hits for confirmation: Wikipedia (of course), and
then PBS. The openings:

Wikipedia <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ping_Pong_Diplomacy>:
Ping Pong Diplomacy (Chinese: 乒乓外交) refers to the exchange of ping pong
players of the United States and People's Republic of China (PRC) in the
1970s. The event marked a thaw in U.S.-China relations that paved the way to
a visit to Beijing by President Richard Nixon.

PBS, The American Experience | Nixon's China
Game<http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/china/peopleevents/pande07.html>
One of the first public hints of improved U.S.-China relations came on April
6, 1971, when the American Ping-Pong team, in Japan for the 31st World Table
Tennis Championship, received a surprise invitation from their Chinese
colleagues for an all-expense paid visit to the People's Republic.
*Time*magazine called it "The ping heard round the world." On April
10, nine
players, four officials, and two spouses stepped across a bridge from Hong
Kong to the Chinese mainland, ushering in an era of "Ping-Pong diplomacy."
They were the first group of Americans allowed into China since the
Communist takeover in 1949.

m a m

On Dec 19, 2007 3:49 PM, Barbara Need <nee1 at midway.uchicago.edu> wrote:

> On 19 Dec 2007, at 14:41, RonButters at AOL.COM wrote:
>
> > Is "ping pong diplomacy" (back-and-forth negotiations--especially
> > with N
> > Korea?) new? It is new to me, anyway, and my instinct tells me that
> > it is a
> > keeper.
>
> I don't think so. I associate it with China, in the 1970s. (When it
> might have had less to do with the back-and-forth and more to do with
> actual ping-pong!)
>
> Barbara
>
> Barbara Need
> University of Chicago
> <http://www.americandialect.org>
>