Decouple from China, they said. We can make it ourselves, they said.
Moving on, I wanna talk about a somewhat tragic character in ping pong, Japan's Kasumi Ishikawa. Of the non-Chinese players, she's my favorite by far. She's beautiful, trained in China with fluent Chinese, and was ranked as high as 3rd at the peak of her career, holding down the position of Captain of the Japanese Women's Team. Her nickname is the Pure Girl because of her crisp and innocent expressions. She's 30 now and retired after failing to qualify for Paris. She's very popular in Japan and China and has many sponsorships and gigs so everything actually looks great for her life and future... except for one thing: she loves Ma Long.
She has said that she always admired his prowess as a fan, but when she first laid eyes on him in person, she was awestruck by how handsome and cool he was. However as fortune would have it, Ma Long had a steady girlfriend, whom he would come to marry and have a son with. After Kasumi's retirement, Japanese TV shows interviewed her asking if she is ready for dating and marriage. She said sure, and she has many suitors but she thinks it will be hard for her because eversince she was in elementary school, playing ping pong at an elite level has made her naturally look for others' weaknesses while hiding her own. She says this trait is highly unsuitable for a relationship. For Paris, she came to see Ma Long train and win his last gold medal. When she went to see him afterwards to give him a congratulatory pin which she gave to every Chinese ping pong team member, he accepted it and left with a gleeful smile as that between great friends. But her expression on camera turned to that of sadness for several moments after he was gone. How is this girl to get married? What man, who can meet the standards of a rich and beautiful celebrity who was also a table tennis champion and 3 time Olympic medalist, can tolerate marrying a woman known as the lady who loves Ma Long? What a story it would have been if the Captain of China's Table Tennis Men's Team married the Captain of Japan's Table Tennis Women's team...
