Jan Berris and a Chinese co-announcer during the Chinese Martial Arts Team's visit in the US in 1974 [Photo provided to China Daily]

In a fateful twist of events, it also set Berris, a promising young diplomat stationed in the US consulate in Hong Kong, on a different path.

"In June 1971, two months after the US players' China visit, I was invited by a former professor of mine who was the chairman of the national committee to join the organization and prepare for the coming visit for the Chinese ping-pong team. So I took what I thought would be a one-year leave from the foreign service."

While the Chinese players were in the US, they were followed around by "two plane loads of journalists", says Berris, who was with the Chinese team throughout.

"Print journalists, television journalists … American media, Chinese media, Japanese media, the European media.… It was a really, really big deal."

The event was so successful that the acrobats were sent. Again, the national committee was the host. Berris naturally asked for a second year's leave, which was agreed to, and then a third year, which was also granted, albeit reluctantly. When the fourth year came, Berris, who then knew "more Chinese than all the people working for the US Government combined", decided to resign from the foreign service and permanently join the committee, founded in 1966 by people who "saw the potential not the limitations" in the two countries' future.

"Looking back, it all sounds surreal for a girl growing up in a landlocked city in Michigan," Berris says.

Most of the first generation of "China hands" had either missionary or trader ancestors who were involved with China, she says.