In 1971 a group of American table tennis (“ping pong”) players made history by traveling to China. The first Americans to legally visit in more than 20 years, they opened lines of communication that remain vital today. The people-to-people links they established are being carried on today by American and Chinese college students. Your Serve or Mine, a new Public TV documentary, tells their stories.

At the 1971 World Table Tennis Championships in Japan, a member of the American team got on the wrong bus, boarding the Chinese team bus. And as improbable as it sounds, his brief attempt at conversation with the captain of the Chinese table tennis team – and the pictures taken of the two of them talking – led to an invitation for the Americans to visit a then largely closed “Red China.” He and his teammates broke more than 20 years of silence between America and China, which would eventually lead to diplomatic relations between the two countries. The “back channels” of communication they opened remain just as important now as they were in the 1970s. Only today it is American and Chinese university and college students serving the role of “informal diplomats,” young people who can accomplish things that others find challenging. 

Your Serve or Mine premieres on PBS stations across the United States during May 2025, part of special Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month programming, as well as on the free PBS App. Click on the “Where to Watch” tab above for details.