Competitive sports in China are recently new compared to other forms of recreation in China's long history. Martial arts have long been a tradition in China, but today sports like cricket, basketball, and volleyball are gaining momentum. However, some of the more popular sports are ping pong, badminton, and football.
In addition to competitive sports, other types of games are highly competitive and popular in the Chinese culture. Two examples are chess and Mahjong.
Ping Pong (Table Tennis)
China has produced many of the world's top ping pong players, including the current world champion, Wang Ho. Ping pong also played a part in smoothing diplomatic relations between the U.S. and China in the early 1970's. The U.S. ping pong team was invited to play in China in what became known as Ping Pong Diplomacy.
Badminton
Badminton is a hugely popular recreational sport due to its simple rules, inexpensiveness, and easiness to play. Amateur leagues are abundant throughout the country. China has produced several famous badminton players, including doubles player Fu Haifeng who set the world smash record of 206 mph in 2005.
Football (Soccer)
Football (American soccer) was introduced to China in the early 1900's and has developed steadily, though China still struggles to be competitive with other countries. Football is well supported with a large fan base, but they have only qualified for the World Cup one year out of their history. The Chinese Football Association was founded in 1949 and some say it is the lack of vision and leadership by this organization that has attributed to China’s sub-par performances.
Chinese Chess
Similar to ping pong, China has produced many top chess players in the world. Chess has gained in popularity in the past few decades and there are currently around 3 million chess players in China.
Mahjong
Mahjong is a four-player game that originated in China. One legend is that
Confucius invented the game, but that seems unlikely since there is no evidence of its existence before the 19th century. Mahjong consists of 144 tiles that are broken out into three suits, plus Wind, Dragon, and Bonus tiles. The purpose is to collect sets of tiles according to the number and type of each tile. The first player whose hand is a complete set is the winner.
