Many years ago in 1971, the US table tennis team was at the World Championship in Japan. The team from China was also there. This championship took place during the days of Cold War, so the American and the Chinese players didn't even talk to each other.
Glen Cowan, form the US team, didn't like this situation. One day, he saw a Chinese player and invited him to play. They played together for 15 minutes, and Cowan missed the US bus back to the hotel.
Then, something surprising happened. One of the Chinese players waved to Cowan from the Chinese bus. He thought for a moment and then he got on the bus. But the Chinese players didn't talk to him. Suddenly, Zhuang Zedong, three times world champion, came up to Cowan. "What are you doing?" said the other Chinese players. "Don't talk to him! Don't make trouble!" Zedong gave Cowan a silk scarf. "I give you this to show the friendship of the Chinese people to the American people," he said through a translator. Cowan wanted to give something back, but he didn't have anything with him.
Then the bus arrived at the hotel. There were lots of reporters — it was big news to see an American and a Chinese player together. Later, Cowan bought a T-shirt with a peace flag on it, and he gave it to Zedong. The two men became friends.
In the same year, the US team got an invitation to visit China, and in February 1972, US President Richard Nixon went to China on a historic visit. Mary people say that the two men and their friendship made a better relationship between their countries possible.
