Fifty-five years ago, a handful of young US ping-pong players, along with several journalists, arrived in Beijing in a visit now known as the start of Ping-Pong Diplomacy.

The visit cracked open the exchanges between China and the United States at the height of the Cold War and changed the course of bilateral relations and the international landscape at large.

Five and a half decades later, the legacy of Chinese and US players' handshake across a table tennis net is being carried forward, not just by diplomats, but by youths with flag footballs, pickleball paddles and an open heart.

A small ball that moved the globe

On April 10, 1971, the US table tennis team became the first American group invited to visit since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949.

Just eight months later, in February 1972, then US President Richard Nixon landed in China on a trip he called "the week that changed the world." The following April, a Chinese table tennis delegation traveled to the US, where Nixon received them at the White House.

At that meeting, the US president offered a line that has echoed through the decades. As recalled by Li Furong, a world table tennis champion who joined the 1972 US trip, Nixon said despite there being winners and losers in the ping-pong tournament, the real winner "will be the friendship between the people of the United States and the people of the People's Republic of China."

That friendship helped pave the way for normalized relations between the two countries, a relationship widely seen as one of the most consequential in the world today.

From ping-pong to pickleball: a living legacy

Fifty-five years on, the spirit of Ping-Pong Diplomacy has not been locked in a museum but has evolved.

Today, that same impulse to bring Chinese and Americans together through sport has taken new forms: pickleball diplomacy, basketball diplomacy and youth exchange programs that send thousands of young Americans to China for exchange and study programs.

Under the "50,000 in Five Years" initiative, launched in November 2023, more than 40,000 American teenagers have already visited China, observing the country with their own eyes, traveling the expanse of the country on their own feet and becoming ambassadors of friendship across the Pacific.

Among them were students from Lincoln High School in Tacoma, Washington State, a school with ties to China stretching back to 2015. On Thursday, this very school's flag football team played a friendly match against a college club in Beijing as part of commemorations marking the 55th anniversary of Ping-Pong Diplomacy.

They are among the more than 150 young athletes and representatives from various parts of the US who attended a commemorative ceremony of the anniversary and witnessed the official launch of a series of sports exchanges between Chinese and US youth.

'Essence is bringing people together'

Few people understand the essence of Ping-Pong Diplomacy better than Judy Hoarfrost, a member of the 1971 US table tennis team that traveled to China, and Jan Carol Berris, who hosted the Chinese table tennis team during their reciprocal US visit in 1972.

More than half a century later, Hoarfrost, who returned to China for the anniversary, still marvels at what a small group of athletes set in motion. "I never would imagine that it would last 55 years, that we would still remember," she said. "But it's such a wonderful legacy."

Her message to young people is simple: "Always be open in your heart." She said this is crucial for today's youth, as they are both the agents of change and the ones who will shape the future. "So we pass along our legacy to the new generation."

Berris, now vice president of the National Committee on US-China Relations, has made more than 150 trips to China since the 1970s, a span that has allowed her to witness China's breathtaking transformation firsthand.

Speaking on Thursday at events marking the 55th anniversary of Ping-Pong Diplomacy in Beijing, she reflected on why she has stayed committed to the same work for more than five decades.

"For me, the essence of Ping-Pong Diplomacy is bringing people together so that they can better understand what the other person thinks, why they think that way, how they express themselves. I think that's important, because if we did more talking with people, we would wind up in a much better place," said Berris.

She stressed that young people are the future and that she has been pleased to see the 55th anniversary celebrations focus heavily on youth. "The people in the two societies are the foundation," she said.

Remembering the past to inspire the future

Yang Wanming, president of the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, put it plainly at an anniversary event back in February: Commemorating Ping-Pong Diplomacy is not just about remembering history but also about inspiring the future.

"The wisdom and courage of 'the small ball moving the globe' opened the prelude to the normalization of China-US relations and became an enduring story," Yang said.

"The strategic vision, political courage and people-to-people friendship embodied by Ping-Pong Diplomacy deserve to be carried forward."