 "Photo: courtesy of Duc Hoang Le")
Amy Tan, a computer science doctoral student from China, led the UTD table tennis team to victory at the Association of College Unions International (ACUI) regional competition in Edinburg, Texas.
Tan won gold and qualified for the national ACUI competition in April.
How long have you been playing table tennis?
I’ve trained professionally in China since I was 7 years old, and I keep playing all the time. I represented my college in national competitions in China. I attended Northwest Polytechnical University in Xi’an.
In China you can find tables outside in parks and kids who are very young, 4-5 years old, play professionally.
In the U.S., the sport is less popular than in China.
I find it interesting that in the United States many people are interested in playing after work or on the weekend while in China most parents send their children to get trained.
As an international student was it easy to become involved with on-campus activities, like table tennis?
From my first semester (in 2007) at UTD, I played table tennis.
I just came to the Student Union and played with people. I played to relax, to break the ice and became very good friends with the other players.
It was easy to become involved with table tennis because the school provided very good facilities. We have many people playing.
How did you get involved with the UTD table tennis team?
We officially formed this semester. Every night, the three ping pong tables in the Student Union are always full, so the population of ping pong fans at UTD is big.
We decided to form a team to represent UTD. Another student, named Duc Hoang Le, organized the team with Andy (Helgeson), who works in the Student Union. We received three new tables in the Activity Center to practice on.
We meet three times a week to train and play games.
Right now, our coach is a man named Dimitri. He is an older Russian man that plays in the Student Union. He’s very knowledgeable about table tennis.
We advertise our team by inviting people to our Facebook group and sending out event invitations to let people know what we are doing.
How did you find out about the ACUI competition?
We had a ping pong tournament at the Student Union that was coordinated by Andy. I won that tournament and the top eight players were invited by Andy to the ACUI competition in Edinburg, Texas. The competition was at the end of February.
How successful have you been playing table tennis?
I am from Zhuzhou in China and have played in two national competitions representing both my city and my state. At UTD, I have so far won two competitions, one this semester and one last semester. The competition this semester was at ACUI. I placed gold in my region, which included Texas, Mexico, and Louisiana.
What is the difference between playing table tennis in China and playing in the United States?
Table tennis was promoted very well in China and became very popular. Most of the top players in the world are Chinese players. At my college in China we had more tables than we do at UTD.We had like 50 tables outside and we could play anytime we liked.
In China, I even played table tennis representing a company that I worked for.
What advice would you give to people who are interested in learning how to play table tennis?
Table tennis is a very good sport that trains your eyes and brain very well. It is good for all ages, sizes, and genders. It’s most important to practice and play all the time if you wish to become good at it.
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