However, what many people may not know is the unfortunate life of Rong Guotuan, the first world champion in table tennis after the founding of the Chinese Communist Party and the first world champion in any sport.
The Glorious Years
Born in Hong Kong, Yung Kuo Tuan won the Hong Kong Table Tennis Port Championships at the age of 17 and rose to fame at the age of 19 when he defeated the 23rd World Champion of Japan, Dixon Dixon. He developed a fast pumping stroke that broke the fancy playing style that dominated Europe and Japan at the time.
In 1957, at the age of 20, Rong Guotuan was persuaded by He Long, then director of the Chinese Sports Commission, to return to China. In 1958, he was selected for the Guangdong Provincial Table Tennis Team, won the men’s singles championship in the National Table Tennis Championships, and was later selected for the national training team. 1959, April, 25th World Table Tennis Championships in Dortmund, Germany. In the tournament, Rong Guotuan defeated Hungary’s Sido 3-1, winning China’s first men’s singles world championship and the first world championship since the founding of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
It was also the first world championship for the Chinese Communist Party since the founding of the Communist Party. It was a significant victory for the Communist Party at a time when the Western world was rejecting it. Not only did a multitude of honors pour in, but he also received special treatment from Vice Premier He Long, who personally received him at the airport. Mao and Zhou met with Rong Guotuan many times, and every time a foreign guest visited, Rong Guotuan was the guest of honor.
He became an idol of young Chinese, and it is said that letters piled up in the mail room of the ping pong team, including courtship letters. Rongguo Tuan fell in love with a track and field athlete from Guangdong, Huang Xiuzhen, and was married at first sight.
In 1961, at the 26th World Table Tennis Championships in Beijing, Rong Guotuan was instrumental in China’s first men’s team championship. Table tennis fever broke out across the country. As a result of technological exposure and innovation, Zhuang Zedong replaced Rong Guotuan as coach of the women’s table tennis team and led the team to win the women’s team championship at the 28th World Table Tennis Championships.
Abused in the Cultural Revolution
After the outbreak of the Cultural Revolution in 1966, the ping pong team was also hit. In December of that year, when the Rong Guotuan returned from a tournament abroad, it was discovered that the Ping-Ping training center had been plastered with big-character posters by the Red Guards, who claimed that the national ping-pong team was a product of revisionism, because the seven world championships it had won were all trophies of the bourgeoisie.
The defeat of He Long and his upbringing in Hong Kong led to his isolation, along with Fu Qifang, the national team manager, and Jiang Yongning, the Beijing team manager, who had also returned from Hong Kong, and were fought, insulted, and beaten by the rebels. The rebels grabbed them, insulted and beat them up. They were branded as a “small group of counter-revolutionary spies” because they often dined together.
The rebels said that Rong Guotuan was a hard-core royalist, so they locked him up in the toilet to write exposés. A loud speaker was installed in the toilet, and a wire was pulled to the task force. The Red Guards who watched over him played mah-jongg for a while, then shouted into the loudspeaker to make him confess, and mentally abused him from morning to night. Sometimes he also dragged him out for interrogation, and beaten. He was also accused of reading foreign novels, listening to foreign classical music, being nostalgic for Hong Kong, and bringing things from Hong Kong without being inspected.
Implicated by He Long
He Long, famous for his “two kitchen knives to make a revolution”, is still very famous in the history of the Chinese Communist Party. He was well known in the history of the Communist Party of China (CPC), and was deeply appreciated by Mao for his recklessness. After the establishment of the CCP, He Long was appointed Vice Chairman of the Military Commission, Vice Premier of the State Council, and Director of the National Sports Commission. It is said that of all these positions, He Long was most interested in the Director of the Physical Culture and Sports Commission. It was his idea to get the Rong Guotuan from Hong Kong to China. Naturally, He Long was very happy that Yung won the world championship and flaunted it everywhere.
When the Cultural Revolution broke out, Mao, worried about losing power, set up the He Long Task Force in September 1966 on the grounds that He Long would stage a coup. According to some analysts, Mao wanted to get rid of He Long because he feared that He Long would become Liu Shaoqi’s power in the army, because He Long did not get along well with Lin Biao, and Mao wanted to bring Lin Biao in line with He Long, and because He Long had deep ties with Zhou Enlai and listened to Zhou’s advice. Mao, who distrusted Zhou greatly, had to get rid of He Long.
Later, He Long was sent to Xishan where he was imprisoned and tortured to death. No one doubted that with the fall of He Long, the fate of the Rong Guoduan would be inevitable.
Suicide
Prior to the 30th World Championships, Rong Guotuan and his teammates drafted a petition to prove themselves, but the petition was ignored. It was then that Fu Qifang and Jiang Yongning finally chose to commit suicide due to the mental and physical cruelty of the struggle and beatings, which left Rong Guotuan confused and devastated. He kept asking his teammate, Qiu Jong-Hui, “Do you think we were wrong?” The two men racked their brains to figure out how they could have been wrong. Soon, the sports world purged the team further, demanding that Rongguo Tuan write an inspection and questioning why he had to write a petition. Yung Kuo Tuan’s last hope was dashed.
One evening in June 1968, after wandering for a long time, Rong Guotuan hanged himself at the age of 30. His last letter to the rebels and the Revolutionary Committee of the State Physical Culture Commission read: “Am I too deeply poisoned by He Long’s practice? I love face more than life! My history is clean! The biggest mistake was standing in the wrong line twice! Do not suspect me of being an enemy. Apologize to Chairman Mao!”
The main reasons why Rong Guotuan was mistreated and criticized during the Cultural Revolution were: he returned from Hong Kong and was suspected of being a spy; he belonged to He Long’s “triad”; and he chose death to prove his innocence.
Was it suicide or homicide?
However, her teammate Qiu Jong-hui always believed that Rong Guoduan was murdered rather than committed suicide and raised doubts about the authenticity of his suicide note. She believed that Rong Guoduan’s strong personality would not leave such a repentant suicide note. We don’t know what the truth is.
Ten years after the death of Rong Guoduan, he was finally cleared of all wrongdoing. But the former champion never bloomed again. The old champions never blossomed again. The underground knew that Rong Guoduan should have known that his mistake was to step into the Chinese mainland under the Chinese Communist Party.
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