Ping Pong Diplomacy (final)

Our topic was the Ping Pong Diplomacy and Sino-US relations of 1971 – 1973. We first came across this topic in a base list of ideas on the National History Day website. Ibrahim is a big fan of Ping Pong and so, as a warm-up to the actual project we did a little research on it. As we looked into I we agreed that it was a very interesting topic and could lead to a lot of new, enlightening information particularly in respect to the current US-Sino relations and the debt we owe to China.  In the end we used our preliminary research to kick-start our research for the rest of the presentation.

How we conducted our research:

            In our class we had a system set up for researching historical and current events. The idea was to find the social, economic, military and political implications of the occurrence and it’s aftermath. We split thee groupings so that Emma did social and military and Ibrahim did economic and political. Continuing from there we broke down the three or so years that we wanted to direct our research on into critical events. We each researched separately our parts of the events and compiled them into sets of primary and secondary documents. We both used a lot of research from video footage and primary documents from Reagan and Chinese Government officials. There were also books and quotes from some of the members of the team that went to China, which were very helpful. We shared what we had and did a little research for each others topics just so we were fully rounded and then buckled down to write out Op-Eds and fake news articles.

How we selected our format:

            At the beginning we very much wanted to make a video. After all, large amounts of our research and material were news footage or videos. However, we figured that a single video would hardly meet expectations. We debated whether we wanted to make a physical exhibit or a website. We ended up picking website because we were able to use our written information as well as make a video to go with whereas with an exhibit we would have to transform all of our writing into imagery.

            In creating our website we originally were using Tumblr. However, it was a very inefficient format because it was not accessible in school and also was messy and complicated. One of my teachers suggested that we look at Weebly.com. It was easy and unblocked by the school district. This made it easier to work from school and together. We set up the different sections we wanted, quick formatted them on paper before placing everything in its place on the pages. Emma set about creating a video from a compilation of the footage that was collected and uploaded it to Youtube so that it could be seen in the website. After that all that was left was a little touch ups of picture framing and word formatting.

How our project relates to the theme:

            With a theme of Debate and Diplomacy the connection to Ping Pong Diplomacy seems more than obvious. The entire event was about the conversation, creation and reparation of Sino-US relations as well as the Shanghai Communiqué. In regards to our connections (the economic results and political reaction)  are relative because both involve discussion between two parties (in one case, China and the US; in another, Nixon and the GOP and the voters of America) as well as a formal decision in important concepts (economic production and presidential candidacy).  Within each subcategory of the main topic of Ping Pong Diplomacy there are many other diplomatic actions and reactions between countries as well as opposing opinionated groups.