Rainer Turim ‘18

April Fools 2016

This coming August, BHSEC Chinese teacher Ms. Fu will head to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to participate in the 28th annual Summer Olympics. Ms. Fu will play in both single and team events for table tennis, also known as ping pong. The racquet sport debuted at the Seoul Olympics in 1988 and has since became an increasingly competitive and intense sport. Of course, Ms. Fu has been preparing for another chance like this all along.

In her youth, Ms. Fu spent her summers at a local recreation center playing ping pong. Many of her peers noticed her talent and always encouraged her to go far in the sport. The recreation center’s attendant remembered Ms. Fu and her hours spent playing kids and adults older than her. Like Ms. Fu’s peers, the attendant was supportive, “I knew she was going to make it somewhere, who knew it would be the Olympics! I’m still waiting for her autograph.”

Just recently Ms. Fu held a ping pong championship tournament for her sophomore students. The championship ended in a team battle between a team made up of a sophomore and herself against a team of two Year 2s. One of the Year 2s was Henry Nye. He described the game as “the most magical experience, because you know you're facing both your high school Chinese teacher and the state ping pong champion!” He recalled making eye contact with Ms. Fu during the game, “The look in her eyes when she sinks a slam on you is a combination of endearing and absolutely terrifying, like a mother bear defending her small white spherical children.” Hopefully Ms. Fu will make the same impression on her opponents later this year in Brazil. Ms. Fu has recently considered integrating table tennis into the Chinese curriculum in an effort to make more room for practice while in school. If she does decide to integrate table tennis, all, or at least a significant portion of, scheduled exams and quizzes will be canceled. Students are optimistic that, in light of the approaching games, she won’t be assigning oral quizzes and homework assignments for the rest of the semester.

While the BHSEC community was amazed when Ms. Fu was selected to represent the United States of America at the Summer Olympics, the table tennis community instantly became uneasy. They knew Fu Laoshi is not going to give mercy this summer. Four time Olympic gold winner and table tennis legend Nan Wang had no comment regarding Ms. Fu’s acceptance into the Summer Olympics. However, sources have recently found Wang playing regularly in the Lower East Side parks preparing for what may be a battle between champions.

This coming August won’t be Ms. Fu’s first time in the Olympics. In the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics, Ms. Fu competed in a table tennis team battle. Because of the unusual circumstances, Ms. Fu participated in the men category. At first the men assumed she'd be an easy target, but she quickly proved them wrong. Within a few minutes, Ms. Fu lead the game with four points. One of Ms. Fu’s opponent still remembers the game to this day—“Ms. Fu? Or should I say Ms. Ping Pong! She made my teammate and I go home sweating from head to toe. I wish to play her again soon.” However, due to an ankle injury, Ms. Fu’s fury did not survive long. Unfortunately, Ms. Fu did not win gold as intended, but went home wearing silver.

Ms. Fu has played ping pong far and wide, from the local New York City parks to competitive championships up in Westchester. Ask anyone playing ping pong in a New York City park if they know Fu Laoshi — and they’ll interrupt you to say that they’re well aware of the ping pong master. The sky's the limit for Ms. Fu. In other words, 付老师打球打得很好，很块！