Rong Guotuan

Rong Guotuan

Rong Guotuan (August 10, 1937 June 20, 1968), a Chinese male table tennis player. Born on August 10, 1937 in Hong Kong, China, the worker's family was born in Nanping Town, Zhongshan County, Guangdong Province (now Nanping Town, Xiangzhou District, Zhuhai City, Guangdong Province). The first world champion of Chinese table tennis and even Chinese sports.

In 1959, the 25th World Table Tennis Championship was held in Dortmund, Federal Republic of Germany. Rong Guotuan won the men's singles championship, the first world champion in the world sports competition for China. In 1961, the 26th World Table Tennis Championship was held in Beijing. The Chinese team, represented by Rong Guotuan, defeated Japan 5:3 and won the men's World Championship for the first time. In 1964, she became the coach of the women's team of the Chinese table tennis team and won the women's team championship in the 28th World Table Tennis Championship. On June 20, 1968, Rong Guotuan committed suicide.

On September 25, 2019, Rong Guotuan won the personal title of "the most beautiful fighter".

Biography of characters

Rong Guotuan loved table tennis as a child. In February 1957, he took part in the Hong Kong Inter port table tennis competition and won the men's team, men's doubles and men's singles. In April, the Japanese team visited Hong Kong after participating in the 23rd World Table Tennis Championships, and Rong Guotuan defeated Ichiro Kimura, who just won the men's singles championship. In November, he returned to the mainland from Hong Kong to study in Guangzhou Institute of physical education.

Rong Guotuan has made outstanding contributions to the success of Chinese table tennis in the world. Its motto "life can have several times to fight, at this time do not fight, more to wait for when" has become the motto of the majority of Chinese athletes. During the "Cultural Revolution", Rong Guotuan suffered injustice and was persecuted. On June 20, 1968, he killed himself. On June 23, 1978, the State Physical Culture and Sports Commission held a meeting to implement the cadre policy to rehabilitate Rong Guotuan, restore his reputation, and hold a memorial meeting and a ceremony to place Rong Guotuan's ashes in Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery in Beijing.

Character experience

The newborn calf pulled the world champion down

Rong Guotuan, whose ancestral home is Nanping Town, Zhuhai City, Guangdong Province, was born on August 10, 1937 in a poor seaman's family in Hong Kong. His father, Rong Mianzhi, worked as a child laborer at the age of 15. Later, he worked as a sailor in a shipping company and took part in the general strike between Guangdong and Hong Kong and the uprising in Guangzhou. This patriotic compatriot of Hong Kong always hopes to have a strong country and a united nation as his strong backing, so he named his only son Guotuan. In the winter of 1941, Japanese invaders occupied Hong Kong, and Rong Mian's family returned to Nanping Town, Zhuhai, Guangdong Province. In the autumn of 1943, Rong Guotuan entered Nanping Zhenxian school. The small league is gifted, hardworking and outstanding. At the age of 7, he was fascinated by the little white celluloid ball (a kind of hollow toy ball), so he had an indissoluble bond with table tennis. Although he was small and thin, not much higher than the table tennis table, he had an aura and made great progress, and soon became the "little table tennis king" of the whole school. After the victory of the Anti Japanese war in 1945, Rong Mianzhi, Rong Guotuan's father, returned to Hong Kong to work as a seaman. In February 1948, Rong Guotuan transferred to Hong Kong kindergartens school. However, due to his poor family, Rong Guotuan had to drop out of school.

At the age of 15, he became a child laborer in a fishing shop in the east side of Hong Kong. As a young Lidan, Rong Guotuan gets up early every day in the dark to pick up fish and carry shrimp in the mud. But he was not buried in poverty, because his father was a member of the Seamen's Union under the Hong Kong Workers' progressive organization, the Federation of trade unions, and he got the chance to practice in the club and recreation hall of the Federation of trade unions. It was during that period that Rong Guotuan's skills were improved rapidly. He spent most of his time practicing and studying skills. His talent and hard training made him a top player in Hong Kong. In February 1957, the Hong Kong Table Tennis Championship was held in Hong Kong. Rong Guotuan, on behalf of the Federation of trade unions, took part in the competition and won the men's team, singles and doubles with his partners. From then on, he gained a great reputation. In late April 1957, when the Japanese table tennis team visited Hong Kong, Rong Guotuan, like a newborn calf, played against the world champion Di Cun, which broke out a big surprise - he won two games in a row with 21:19 and 21:13, and pulled the world champion out of the race in an exclamation. Rong Guotuan defeated Di Cun, and the news spread all over Hong Kong overnight. Women and children all know that he became a news figure.

Back to the motherland with simple luggage

During the period when he just became famous, Rong Guotuan asked himself in his heart more than once: who should he play for? Rong Guotuan, who is upright in nature, has been in conflict with the Hong Kong Table Tennis Association for a long time. In the early spring of 1954, Hong Kong's annual table tennis competition began. The 17-year-old Rong Guotuan competed on behalf of the young "citizen team". Before the game, he was invited to the teahouse by the table tennis association to talk, asked him to play match fixing, in order to promote Nanhua team to win the championship again, and promised to compensate a sum of money, but he refused on the spot. In 1956, at the Asian Table Tennis Championship, the table tennis association cheated on Rong Guotuan's name, which made him lose the chance to compete. This strengthened his determination to leave Hong Kong. Rong Mianzhi, Rong Guotuan's father, once participated in the "provincial and Hong Kong strike". Influenced by his father, Rong Guotuan always yearned for the mainland. At the end of 1956, Rong Guotuan submitted an application to the Guangdong Provincial Sports Commission, requesting to serve the motherland. After a series of twists and turns, Rong Guotuan received the admission notice from Guangzhou Institute of physical education. On November 1, 1957, accompanied by the staff of the Federation of trade unions, Rong Guotuan walked across the Luohu bridge in Shenzhen with his simple clothes on his back and threw himself into the embrace of the motherland. He wrote down the mood of that day in his diary: "this is the first day of my new life. When I stepped into the site of Guangzhou Institute of physical education, the table tennis players who had known each other for a long time shook hands with me and extended warm welcome. At this time, my heart is full of happiness. I wanted to be one of them a long time ago, and now I finally get it. "

World champion, national hero

Rong Guotuan has enjoyed unprecedented "special care" since the first day of his return to China. At that time, his monthly salary was 86.5 yuan, which is very rare among athletes. In the national team, Rong Guotuan has a variety of playing methods. It didn't take long for his physique to strengthen. In terms of technology, he was known as "eight armed Nezha" because he was proficient in smoking, killing, cutting, hanging, pulling, rubbing, pushing and blocking. His state reached the peak of his career. After nearly a year of training, Rong Guotuan's name stands out in the list of 11 participants in the Dortmund World Table Tennis Championships determined by the China Table Tennis Association. In the first half of the world table tennis championships, the men's team entered the top four for the first time. He Enlong was encouraged to send a telegram every night to ask about the match. Under the great pressure, in the eight into four competition, the team members fell one after another, Rong Guotuan became the only one left in the men's singles, and reached the final. The final match is the Hungarian veteran SIDO. The Chinese people have never been so close to the dream of winning the championship. Before the competition, Rong Guotuan called out the slogan "how many times can we fight in life", and his teammates have prepared flowers to hide behind the baffle. It's a game destined to go down in history. It's also a character destined to be a hero. In the competition, Rong Guotuan gave full play to the flexible advantage of the Chinese people. He brought the 36 year old and 180 pound sito out of breath and couldn't give full play to his technical advantage. In the end, Rong Guotuan defeated Xiduo 3:1 and won the first world champion in Chinese sports history, which is one of the most significant events in Chinese sports history.

This world champion, let Rong Guotuan's fate into another track, also from then on change table tennis in China's sports system status. Table tennis began to be regarded as "national ball", and gradually became the sustenance of national emotion and the symbol of national sports. In September 1959, the table tennis championship of 10000 employees and cadres was held in Xicheng District of Beijing, and more than 20000 people signed up for the competition. After returning home, the 21-year-old was also treated like a "national hero" -- he long, then Vice Premier of the State Council, personally went to the airport to pick up the plane and offer flowers; Mao Zedong received him many times; Zhou Enlai listed Rong Guotuan's winning the championship and the 10th National Day as two great celebrations in 1959; whenever foreign guests visited, he became a frequent guest at state banquets. The handsome Rong Guotuan has become a national idol. All kinds of letters came like snowflakes, and the table tennis team specially set up a letter reading team for him. "I'm often surrounded when I go to the street. I have to talk to him and sign something." Rong Guotuan's wife Huang Xiuzhen said.

After he became a coach, the Chinese women's team was able to win the championship

As a matter of fact, Rong Guotuan is not only an athlete. He pursues rich things in the spiritual world, and his wide range of knowledge is often surprising. On a visit abroad, Rong Guotuan told an Italian about Garibaldi, an Italian national hero, his strategy and tactics in war, and his character. The Italian said with emotion, "you know him better than I do." Resourceful, erudite, diligent This series of advantages also make Rong Guotuan's achievements not only in the field. In 1961, the 26th World Table Tennis Championships was held in Beijing. The Chinese team, represented by Rong Guotuan, defeated Japan 5:3 and won the men's World Championship for the first time. At the end of 1964, Rong Guotuan was appointed as the coach of the National Women's team when the women's team lost to Japan. In order to fight a good turnaround, he gave up his vacation and forgot to eat and sleep

Chinese PinYin : Rong Guo Tuan