Pingpangqiu, etc.

I suppose it was inevitable once we got the ping pong table at work that there would be a tournament. It took a while to get it organized, but the First Gehua Ticketmaster Table Tennis Tournament got under way last week. The office has been divided into six teams, more or less by departments, and pretty much everyone is slated to participate regardless of skill level or experience.

In the Olympics the sport is called “table tennis” due to the fact that the name Ping Pong is trademarked in a number of countries, but as it turns out the Chinese name for the sport is pingpangqiu (with qiu meaning ball or any object that is used similarly, resulting in yumaoqiu for badminton, literally feather ball).

When I first got a chance to see the tournament, I was surprised to find the former application processing room turned into a little arena, with some folding tables turned on their side to separate the area of play from the audience and keep balls from rolling into the crowd.
The referee sits on a high chair on one side, with an assistant at the other side. A scorekeeper marks the points on a white board using a system a little like the game of Hangman, adding a mark for each point.
I’ll just post some photos without much comment, since most readers won’t know any of the players anyway.
This is a game I have not played in quite a few years, and I’ll admit I’m not even clear on the rules, so when my turn comes up it’s sure to be good for a laugh. Too bad I don’t have a red clown nose to wear.
Incidentally, pingpangqiu is something of a Ticketmaster tradition. I know the offices in both Seattle and Phoenix have tables and have also hosted tournaments.

And here’s a picture from Chinese class.
At this particular point it’s mostly a bunch of random words we’d come across that either needed review or cropped up in someone’s homework. Yezi = coconut. Jidan = chicken egg. Yadan = duck egg. Mimi = secret.