[2] On January 20, 1968, two years into the Cultural Revolution, he married Bao Huiqiao in her dormitory room at the National Music Conservatory in Beijing.

During the Cultural Revolution which began in 1966, Zhuang was not able to pursue his career as a table tennis player as usual, nor was Bao hers as a pianist.

[3] During the 50s to 60s, the majority of the pen-holding style players lacked attacking or counter-attack capabilities on the backhand side, and relied solely on push-blocking.

Zhuang had to streamline his strokes and instead attempted to generate a sudden burst of explosive power via a smaller motion, similar to the "one-inch punch" in the Wing Chun Kung Fu style.

He won and dominated three World Championships with this unique style, and encountered almost no competition from the Japanese, European and his fellow Chinese players.

This is evidenced by the fact the next two champions both had lopsided losing records against Zhuang during the time when the Chinese team did not participate during the Cultural Revolution.

Unlike his team mates, who ignored Cowan due to the political disagreements between their countries, Zhuang Zedong greeted him and presented him with a silk-screen portrait of the Huangshan Mountains, thus starting the so-called ping-pong diplomacy.

[4][5] Ten months after Zhuang's chance meeting with Cowan, Richard Nixon, then president of the United States, visited China in February, 1972 to show faith in the Chinese government.

Only two months later, Zhuang led the Chinese table tennis delegation to the United States from April[6]: 141  18 to 30, as part of an 18-day trip including Canada, Mexico and Peru.

[6]: 141 This brought the two countries together and started to help China's revolution by creating allies.The ping-pong diplomacy eventually led to the normalization of Sino-American relationships in 1979.