Berris performing the sword dance when the Chinese Martial Arts Team visited the US in 1974 [Photo provided to China Daily]

Looking back on that "freezing cold night in Chicago", Berris said most of the audience chose to stay instead of going home and having their ticket money refunded.

"When they were finally allowed back into the theater, there was only a faint whiff of the tear gas there. But it was a lot stronger upon the stage, where the acrobats were doing some very difficult tasks that require plenty of energy and therefore air into one's body. They got a lot of credit from the audience and the media which reported on it afterwards."

In April 1971 Berris was about to board a ferry in Kowloon, Hong Kong, when she saw a lot of newspapers being held up and hawked by various people. "The headlines said that the American ping-pong team was going to China. But I wouldn't believe it until I got back to the office and everyone was running around in excitement."

History is a string of surprises. Berris has witnessed many, and in some she has been one of the players.

She became so fond of every one on the Chinese table tennis team she had traveled with in 1972 that when it was time to say good-bye, amid a great swarm of reporters, she found herself trying to fight back tears-in vain.

"The next year when I visited China, people would come up to me and ask: 'Are you that crying girl?'"