Ping Pang Chow

I’m not sure how much coverage this has received in the World media, or even the British media, but this year is the 48th World Table Tennis Championship, and it is being held in Shanghai this very week, in the extremely impressive Shanghai Stadium. What with table tennis (ping pang chow) being the Chinese national sport (I was surprised to discover – I always thought it was a Japanese thing), we felt this was something we couldn’t miss, and decided to go. We bought the driver a ticket too, which nearly moved him to tears, and in we went.

We watched the games for about half an hour, before deciding to go and get some snacks. We were wandering round the various stands and displays, when J realised she had left her teddy on the seat. We went back, but it was gone. Amid much tears and hysteria, I asked a policeman if there was a lost and found. He called for back-up, and a further two policemen arrived. By now, an interested crowd had formed – even at an international event like this, a Western family was still unusual, and one where the small girl was in hysterics, with three policemen in attendance, was too good a spectacle to miss. Of course, the crowd didn’t know that all this was over a lost teddy, no doubt they thought some major international incident was taking place before their very eyes. Sadly, there was no lost and found, no sign of any teddy and no chance of J calming down. We knew when we were beaten, and left, having hardly seen any action at all. A bit like the English Table Tennis team, in fact.