china has for generations killed female babies. i am married to a china born woman.
the old chinese sold of unmarried daughters as "house slaves". unwanted young chinese girls were offered for sale on the streets.
the reason that present chinese women are doing better in chess is because they were always able to play chess well...but denied the chance.
the reason that present chinese women are doing better in chess is because they were always able to play chess well...but denied the chance.
irrational and nonsense.
this is not nonsense.
you do not know history.
i am not chinese so i do not speak ethnically.
i speak the truth of seventy years among the chinese.
this is not nonsense.
you do not know history.
i am not chinese so i do not speak ethnically.
i speak the truth of seventy years among the chinese.
no arguments either.
Indeed, I was wrong about where table tennis originated. I'm not particularly surprised that it was the Brits who first played it, considering that they generally aren't very good at sports that they invented. 
That said... are people here seriously trying to argue that table tennis is one of the most popular sports worldwide? Ok... I guess it would depend on how you measure popularity, and if you wanted to you could choose a measure such that it makes table tennis the #2 sport internationally. But if you were to go by the number of people who watch professional table tennis on a regular basis, or any other audience-based measure, I highly doubt that it is very popular.
I based the stat on participants. You have not a clue how popular table tennis is in all of Europe. The following is huge. 100's of sponsored players, clubs, tournaments. It is big in Australia, US, Japan, Russia. You simply have had little contact with the sport and are making an assumption based on limited knowledge. All the Scandinavian countries it has a big following.
macer75 wrote:
"Indeed, I was wrong about where table tennis originated."
Indeed you were. You just "made it up". No basis in fact or knowledge there of.
I based the stat on participants. You have not a clue how popular table tennis is in all of Europe. The following is huge. 100's of sponsored players, clubs, tournaments. It is big in Australia, US, Japan, Russia. You simply have had little contact with the sport and are making an assumption based on limited knowledge. All the Scandinavian countries it has a big following.
And what is the source for your stats? Generally speaking, when a sport is popular at a professional level, its athletes make a lot of money from contracts, endorsements, etc. Currently none of the top 100 highest paid athetes in the world are table tennis players.
https://www.forbes.com/athletes/list/
The sports that are clearly popular, on the other hand, are well represented (soccer, basketball, tennis, golf, etc.).
Saying that table tennis is the #2 most popular professional sport in the world does not pass the straight face test.
I based the stat on participants. You have not a clue how popular table tennis is in all of Europe. The following is huge. 100's of sponsored players, clubs, tournaments. It is big in Australia, US, Japan, Russia. You simply have had little contact with the sport and are making an assumption based on limited knowledge. All the Scandinavian countries it has a big following.
He's right, table tennis is worldwide....one of my good friends here in the U.S. was really into it....had a special room in his house, special paddles (like $100 each), and a machine that could launch a ball every second at up to 70 mph....or something like that....I don't play but it was pretty impressive to watch...
Paricipants macer. They do not have to be professionals. China accounts for a large percentage. Everybody and their brother plays table tennis, here and there, World Wide it is the 2nd most actively played sport behind soccer. The top athletes do not make the big bucks, granted, but tens of thousands make a great living from many sources, from coaching to endorsements to prize money.
How many athletes make it to the bigs? The numbers are small in comparison to the amount of players that make it the tour, the circuit for professional table tennis players.
I'm measuring popularity by the amount of participants, not by the amount of spectators. More people play table tennis than play basketball or american football. This is fact.
Paricipants macer. They do not have to be professionals. China accounts for a large percentage. Everybody and their brother plays table tennis, here and there, World Wide it is the 2nd most actively played sport behind soccer. The top athletes do not make the big bucks, granted, but they tens of thousands make a great living from many sources, from coaching to endorsements to prize money.
Well, if you're talking about the number of casual players, then with a good source to back up your claim I might believe you. But given the huge amount of equipment required to play table tennis (a table, two bats/rackets and a ball, at minimum) I find it hard to imagine that there aren't more people in the world playing sports that don't require as much equipment - e.g. all the sports that can be played with just one ball.
If chess was more of a thing in China, they would take over the chess world. There are two races that you excel at any mental undertaking. Sino and Hebrew. Now only one of these cultures has really gotten into chess. In Russia, nearly half of all Grandmasters were of Jewish descent. The best ones, Botvinnik, Tal, Geller, all of them Jewish. It is an anomaly that 8 world champions were possible Jews. Steinitz, Lasker, Botvinnik, Tal, Petrosian, Spassky, Fischer, and Kasparov. If the Chinese were to ever "get into" the game, it would be just the same.
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That's the truth...but I bet many people will start calling you a racist now.....
My "equipment" bat and rubber admittedly costs several hundred dollars. A decent table is $400. You're right on that score. Also, "casual is correct. However Bats cost $10 for 4 and a table about $50. Popularity I measured by participants. Bowling was really huge at one time, but has fallen off considerably. I'd go to table tennis clubs in gymnasiums and there would be 100's of players, many casual and many serious players. Outdoors you'd find a few teams playing basketball or football. It is a lot more popular than you think
If chess was more of a thing in China, they would take over the chess world. There are two races that you excel at any mental undertaking. Sino and Hebrew. Now only one of these cultures has really gotten into chess. In Russia, nearly half of all Grandmasters were of Jewish descent. The best ones, Botvinnik, Tal, Geller, all of them Jewish. It is an anomaly that 8 world champions were possible Jews. Steinitz, Lasker, Botvinnik, Tal, Petrosian, Spassky, Fischer, and Kasparov. If the Chinese were to ever "get into" the game, it would be just the same.
Fischer was actually sorta anti-sematic, so........
If chess was more of a thing in China, they would take over the chess world. There are two races that you excel at any mental undertaking. Sino and Hebrew. Now only one of these cultures has really gotten into chess. In Russia, nearly half of all Grandmasters were of Jewish descent. The best ones, Botvinnik, Tal, Geller, all of them Jewish. It is an anomaly that 8 world champions were possible Jews. Steinitz, Lasker, Botvinnik, Tal, Petrosian, Spassky, Fischer, and Kasparov. If the Chinese were to ever "get into" the game, it would be just the same.
Fischer was actually sorta anti-sematic, so........
Something like this is not an anomaly, rather a pattern found in the statistical data.
Well... table tennis is different. It originated in China and did not become widely popular internationally, so of course Chinese athetes are going to be dominant in it, just as American athletes are dominant in basketball, Japanese in sumo wrestling, etc.
Table tennis not become widely popular internationally?
Do you have any clue what you are talking about?