Commemorative Ping-Pong Paddle

China 2007

This inscribed ping-pong paddle was given to former Secretary of State Dr. Henry Kissinger by Chinese table tennis champion Zhuang Zedong in the fall of 2007. It was Zhuang’s chance encounter with a member of the U.S. table tennis team in 1971 that led to the “ping-pong diplomacy” with China of the early 1970s. Kissinger, who at that time was President Nixon's National Security Advisor, traveled to Beijing twice in 1971 to discuss the conditions under which the U.S. and China would consider normalizing diplomatic relations.

  • Source/Credit: Gift of Dr. Henry Kissinger
  • Catalog Number: 2012.0009.01
  • Created: 2007
  • Acquired: 2012

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MLA Format

Commemorative Ping-Pong Paddle. 2007. National Museum of American Diplomacy, https://diplomacy.state.gov/items/commemorative-ping-pong-paddle

Chicago Format

Commemorative Ping-Pong Paddle, 2007, National Museum of American Diplomacy, Washington, DC, https://diplomacy.state.gov/items/commemorative-ping-pong-paddle

APA Format

(2007). Commemorative Ping-Pong Paddle [Object]. National Museum of American Diplomacy, Washington, D.C., United States. https://diplomacy.state.gov/items/commemorative-ping-pong-paddle