[2] In the early days of his career, Tang was unable to participate in international competitions due to political factors, but he defeated the world's top players many times during overseas visits and exchanges, and was known as the "Uncrowned King" in badminton.

Many of the players he coached had won the World Championships and/or Olympic gold medals such as Lin Ying, Wu Dixi, Li Lingwei, Han Aiping, Ji Xinpeng, Xia Xuanze, Sun Jun, Lin Dan, Cai Yun, Fu Haifeng, Alan Budikusuma and Hendrawan.

[6] Tang was born of Chinese descent in Kotabumi, Lampung Province, Dutch East Indies, on 13 March 1942.

[3] Due to the outbreak of the anti-Chinese movement in Indonesia, Tang then decided to go to China in 1961 after his partner and rival, Hou Jiachang from Surabaya, to continue his studies while playing badminton.

[2] Fung Permadi, who moved to the Chinese Tapei in the 1990s and runner-up to China's Sun Jun at the 1999 IBF World Championships, was also trained by Tang.

There he trained Dong Jiong, Sun Jun, Ji Xinpeng, Xia Xuanze, Chen Hong and others.

In 2000, Ji Xinpeng, not herald before the competition, managed to beat Indonesia's Taufik Hidayat, Denmark's Peter Gade and another Indonesian player Hendrawan to win China's first ever badminton Olympic men's singles gold.

[2] In 2012, the 70-year-old Tang returned to help the Chinese team prepare for the London Olympics after taking a short hiatus from the sport due to health problems.

Tang was born when the Japanese army occupied Indonesia, hence his parents named him "现虎", which means "tiger of today" and placed fearless expectations on him.

His second wife, Lu Qing, was once a trainee of the Chinese national badminton team under Tang, who was still coaching in China at the time.