Today, Lincoln High School hosted a special table tennis demonstration celebrating the U.S. and Chinese players who competed against one another during what became known as “Ping-Pong Diplomacy”. In April 1971, the People’s Republic of China invited U.S. table tennis players to visit China, marking the first American delegation permitted to enter the country since the 1949 communist revolution. The visit helped open the door to engagement between the United States and China.

The event featured friendly matches with original 1971 U.S. team members Connie Sweeris and Judy Hoarfrost, Zhang Jianmin the Consul General of the People’s Republic of China in San Francisco, and local table tennis players. The program also included welcoming remarks from Tacoma Mayor Anders Ibsen and performances by Lincoln’s choir, which sang “Stand by Me” and “In the Fields of Hope” in Mandarin. The latter song was popularized by China’s First Lady, Peng Liyuan.

The demonstration was broadcast on China Global Television Network, reaching a worldwide audience and highlighting the continued impact of “Ping-Pong Diplomacy” more than five decades later.

The event showcased the power of sports and cultural exchange to build connections across countries. It also reflects Lincoln High School’s decade-long relationship with China. In 2015, Chinese President Xi Jinping visited the school during a trip to Tacoma, gifting the school ping-pong tables and surprising students and staff by inviting 100 Lincoln students on an all-expenses-paid trip to China the following year.

Since then, nearly 1,000 Tacoma Public Schools students have visited China, and this spring, 20 Lincoln student flag football players will travel to China, providing more students with opportunities for cultural exchange.