In 1994, a movie came along about a man of low intelligence who happens to hit a few lucky breaks, weaving himself in and out of the timeline of American history, and into the hearts of millions of movie-goers. That man is Forrest. Forrest Gump.

For the month of February, I'll be focusing episode topics on historical and pop culture references in the movie. Ones you may have missed when watching the film because of the overwhelming emotion attached to every scene, or ones you may only be familiar with on the surface.

In this episode, we'll be talking about the popular victorian parlor sport and how it led to the first Americans visiting China in 20 years, breaking what was known as the bamboo curtain.

I'm your host, Emily Prokop, and this is The Story Behind Ping-Pong.

The role of Premier Zhou En-lai was played by Fear from Fearcast and FYFCast.

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Media:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvJ4wh1kwR8

Music for Makers

Sources:

https://www.killerspin.com/blog/table-tennis-through-time-a-brief-history-of-ping-pong/

https://www.killerspin.com/the-history-of-table-tennis

http://www.athleticscholarships.net/history-of-table-tennis.htm

https://www.olympic.org/table-tennis-equipment-and-history

http://www.pongworld.com/more/history.shtml

http://www.businessinsider.com/dartmouth-beer-pong-guide-2013-11

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/26/drinking-games-beer-pong_n_4855917.html

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/china/peopleevents/pande07.html

http://www.history.com/news/ping-pong-diplomacy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUOiJOqrHlI

http://www.avclub.com/article/tom-hanks-had-some-cgi-help-his-forrest-gump-ping--235793

http://articles.latimes.com/1994-07-10/entertainment/ca-14048_1_gary-sinise

https://storify.com/kendrakahn/how-cgi-technology-allowed-forrest-gump-meet-john