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00:23 / 12:33




And space is limited,


WHAT PING-PONG TAUGHT ME ABOUT LIFE

2,326,087 views |
Pico Iyer |
TEDSummit 2019
• July 2019

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Read transcript
Growing up in England, Pico Iyer was taught that the point of a game was to win.
Now, some 50 years later, he's realized that competition can be "more like an
act of love." In this charming, subtly profound talk, he explores what regular
games of ping-pong in his neighborhood in Japan have revealed about the riddle
of winning -- and shows why not knowing who's won can feel like the ultimate
victory.
 * culture
 * history
 * sports
 * personal growth
 * humanity

TED is supported by ads and partners


TALK DETAILS


Growing up in England, Pico Iyer was taught that the point of a game was to win.
Now, some 50 years later, he's realized that competition can be "more like an
act of love." In this charming, subtly profound talk, he explores what regular
games of ping-pong in his neighborhood in Japan have revealed about the riddle
of winning -- and shows why not knowing who's won can feel like the ultimate
victory.
 * culture
 * history
 * sports
 * personal growth
 * humanity


This talk was presented at an official TED conference.
Read our curation guidelines.


ABOUT THE SPEAKER


Pico Iyer
Author
See speaker profile

Novelist and nonfiction author Pico Iyer writes on subjects ranging from the
Cuban Revolution to Islamic mysticism, from Graham Greene to forgotten nations
and the 21st-century global order.


PICO IYER'S RESOURCE LIST


Roger Bennett and Eli Horowitz | It Books, 2010 | Book
Everything You Know Is Pong: How Mighty Table Tennis Shapes Our World
It may not always be entirely reliable, but it's a tremendously fun compendium
of astonishing facts and photos about the sport of (chiseling) kings. The
perfect present for the basement fanatic.

Jerome Charyn | Da Capo Press, 2002 | Book
Sizzling Chops and Devilish Spins: Ping-Pong and the Art of Staying Alive
A veteran novelist, known for his work on Emily Dickinson, recalls his days
playing ping-pong in Paris (former home of the ping-pong aficionado Henry
Miller), often against the great chanteur Georges Moustaki.

Nicholas Griffin | Scribner, 2014 | Book
Ping-Pong Diplomacy: The Secret History Behind the Game That Changed the World
A compulsively engaging account of how ping-pong in 1972 brought China and the
US together, of the sport's relationship to international intelligence and of
its influence in Mao Zedong's China.

Howard Jacobson | Oberon Press, 2017 | Book
The Mighty Walzer
The prolific British novelist devoted this entire novel to lust and clumsiness
and adolescent ping-pong.
Robert Whiting | Vintage Books, 2009 | Book
You Gotta Have Wa
The witty and brilliant dean of American writers on Japanese baseball — and
therefore on Japanese-American relations — has written many fine books on the
sport, but this may be the one to start with. (It's certainly the first book I
urge on every first-time Western visitor to Japan.)

Donald Richie | Stone Bridge Press, 2001 | Book
The Donald Richie Reader: 50 Years of Writing on Japan
No foreign writer has ever caught every aspect of Japan, from its red-light
districts to its temples, with more ironic sympathy and clarity than Donald
Richie, who spent the better part of 66 years in the country without ever
pretending to become Japanese, having arrived with the Occupation in 1947, and
remaining in Tokyo almost every year until his death, in 2013.

Pico Iyer | Vintage (reprint edition), 2020 | Book
Autumn Light: Season of Fire and Farewells
I hesitate to recommend a book by myself, but for anyone interested in how a
ping-pong club sheds light on autumn and an aging society and hope and second
childhood, in a generic, modern suburb of the ancient city of Nara, Japan, this
may be the one book that stitches them all together. A companion work, A
Beginner's Guide to Japan (Alfred A. Knopf), offers a wider look at values and
assumptions in my adopted home of 32 years, including sections on baseball, on
harmony and on the art of remaining invisible.


LEARN MORE

TED COURSES
Enroll in Pico Iyer's TED Course: How to take a life-changing journey
Sign up now for a four-week online TED Course with Pico Iyer, where he will
explain how counterintuitive acts—like seeking out discomfort and balancing
movement with stillness—can help you shed preconceived notions of a place and,
perhaps more importantly, see your own place in the world with utterly fresh and
appreciative eyes. Connect with a global community of lifelong learners and move
through a beautifully crafted course that will help provide the inspiration,
knowledge and skills you need to thrive.

This talk was presented at an official TED conference.
Read our curation guidelines.
TED is supported by ads and partners


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Pico Iyer: What ping-pong taught me about life | TED Talk


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