Fifty-five years after United States table tennis players made a historic visit to China, the spirit of Ping-Pong Diplomacy continues to live on as people-to-people exchanges remain a cornerstone in bilateral relations.

That is the view of Bill Einreinhofer, a three-time Emmy Award-winning US film producer and director of the public television documentary Your Serve or Mine.

An Asian premiere of the documentary was held at the Asia Society Hong Kong Center on Tuesday to coincide with the 55th anniversary of Ping-Pong Diplomacy this year.

"Contemporary observers typically refer to the 'bad' relationship between the United States and the People's Republic of China. But in the early 1970s, there was no relationship," Einreinhofer told China Daily.

Yet, the leaders of both countries wanted to find a way to talk and they discovered it through a "remarkable accident" — when somebody got on the wrong bus and opened the door that most people did not even know existed, he said.

At the 1971 World Table Tennis Championships in Nagoya, Japan, US player Glenn Cowan accidentally boarded the Chinese team's bus. He was warmly greeted by China's Zhuang Zedong, who gave Cowan a Huangshan Mountain silk tapestry as a gift.

On April 10 that year, at China's invitation, nine players from the US table tennis team made their historic trip to China, becoming the first US nationals to visit the country in more than 20 years.

The trip was the beginning of "Ping-Pong Diplomacy", paving the way for high-level China-US diplomatic talks, with then-US president Richard Nixon visiting China in 1972 and the formal establishment of diplomatic ties in 1979.

Einreinhofer's documentary, shot on locations in China and the US, not only interviews athletes who took part in the 1971 exchange, but also explores people-to-people exchanges between China and the US in recent times, and how the spirit of Ping-Pong Diplomacy continues to live on.

"The visit of American table tennis players to China made communication possible. The same holds true today," Einreinhofer said. People-to-people exchange plays an important role away from the glare of the media spotlight as it gives both countries an opportunity to communicate candidly, he said.

As he talked to people of different generations for the documentary, Einreinhofer said he found that young people remained eager to explore their counterparts' culture and "daily routines", which could give them deep insights into similarities and differences.

Bridging cultures

"Years ago, I was a young scholar studying in the US … that is why I feel so compelled to bring this film to Hong Kong and to audiences across the Chinese mainland," said Ziheng Wang, who coproduced the documentary.

The film was first shown on US public broadcaster PBS in April last year and has been broadcast on more than 250 local stations, Wang said. The team hopes to bring the documentary to other cities where it was filmed at, including Beijing and Shanghai, she said.

The team also developed free learning resources and lesson plans for US public high school students to learn about Ping-Pong Diplomacy, saying exchanges of ideas among the next generation are becoming an important link in people-to-people diplomacy in this era.

Chan Tin-yan, 20, an undergraduate student in Hong Kong who plans to study in the US in two years' time, said he was amazed to learn the history of Ping-Pong Diplomacy and how the city served as a bridge for US players to enter the Chinese mainland.

"My biggest takeaway is this kind of cultural connection between two different countries is really good," Chan said.

"It is so vital to see all the communications and exchange what we have in different cultures."

Reflecting on growing up in an era when China was often referred to as "Red China" and diplomatically unrecognized in the US, Einreinhofer said the conditions for bilateral exchanges at that time were far worse than the tensions today.

That is why he remains deeply optimistic, he added.

"It is because of the nature of the American people, the nature of the Chinese people. We are two very welcoming cultures," he said.

kelly@chinadailyapac.com