February 12, 2018, by brzmjb1

By the Bridge of Table Tennis | University of Nottingham meets China University of Political Science and Law

The following guest blog is written by former UoN and CUPL student Wanbing Yue (Lester Yue) following the visit to the University of Nottingham by his former Table Tennis coach Peng  Bo and a contingent from the CUPL, who trained at David Ross Sports Village.

Back in early 2017, when I was an undergraduate student at China University of Political Science and Law (CUPL), the University of Nottingham Table Tennis team visited my college to interact with our players. Our team at the time contained some of the brightest talent in all of Chinese Higher Education and was highly admired. Now one year on, I have graduated from my beloved university and unexpectedly become a Master of Law at the University of Nottingham. Life is what happens to you when you have totally no idea what will happen next and incredible coincidences just happen.  I never thought that someday I would be able to deliver a reception abroad for a visiting team from my home college. However, that happened when a Table Tennis team led by Peng Bo, (my former Table Tennis coach) arrived at Nottingham on Monday. As one of the representatives of the sport department of UoN, we hosted the team and spent two exhausting but meaningful days with them.

Following their arrival, the next morning the players had a tour around University Park campus and were stunned by its beauty. All of the faculties on campus showed their best hospitality making the group feel at home. After a tight but relatively comprehensive tour around Nottingham, the team went to David Ross Sports Village to discuss Table Tennis with UoN’s players. The mixed training session between the two schools’ players lasted for three hours until 8pm.  There were constructive discussions regarding performance and training, with both sharing best practice from the highest level of University Table Tennis in China and the UK.

On the following day, a competition was held between two teams which was so competitive and entertaining to watch that I probably felt more excited than the players did.

Generally speaking, with a more systematic and complete training environment in China, the CUPL team is a slightly better team than UoN. However, through various constructive meetings and discussions, the UoN sport department and CUPL managed to reach a number of constructive agreements included a student exchange  initiative which will provide students of UoN’s Table Tennis team with a great opportunity to be trained in China. The opportunity will similarly allow CUPL Table Tennis players the chance to study at a world-class University (including scholarship opportunities). It is a valuable and important development in the reciprocal relationship between the two universities. 

As a Table Tennis fan, it is my great honor to study at both UoN and CUPL, an experience which has provided me many unbelievable opportunities to acquaint world class players and coaches. As a Law student (and with both UoN and CUPL’s Law faculties being of the highest level in their own country), I hope that in the near future there will be deep communication and collaboration between the two universities.

 I am proud of being a student of both UoN and CUPL and hope that the two universities get better and more brilliant.

Written by Wanbing Yue (Lester Yue),  Master of Law at the University of Nottingham

Posted in Uncategorized