Interview with Yau Man Chan

By Liang Liu, NCTTA Public Relations Director

Congratulations with your recent success on Survivor. You were voted the Survivor Fan Favorite of the Fiji Islands. How does that make you feel?

Well, I was very surprised. I didn’t think that I would do anything so extraordinary. Then to find out that everybody liked me was very, very surprising.

Were you a fan of Survivor?

No, I didn’t watch the show. The only time that I watched the show was the first season in 2000. The only reason why I watched it was because it was filmed in Borneo, right where I grew up. So out of curiosity I watched it.

How was your experience?

It was an incredible experience. It was a lot hotter than I thought. You know when I found out that I got on, I started to watch some of the previous series from Netflix to watch some of the previous series. It did not look as bad as what it really was on the island. I did not expect how awful it was.

How did you get involved with this? How did you know about it?

Well, actually the survivor people wanted more diversity on the show, so they started recruiting people. I didn’t realize how much they were recruiting from the table tennis community [until] NCTTA championship in Ohio in march, [where] I ran into a couple of NCTTA officers, who said that they were also asked to apply. I was one of those who got an email that said, “Hey if you’re interested in Survivor, please call this number.” I guess out of curiosity, I called it. When I called the producer, after he found out that I grew up in Borneo, he was very interested and kept on urging me to apply

When did you actually arrive at the Fiji islands?

The filming started at the very last week of October, and went on for 6 weeks. And I was home by the first weekend of December,

How was the training? Like how did you prepare for it?

I didn’t really prepare for it. I just went in there as it is.

Do you wish to go back?

Not particularly. I would like to go back to see Fiji again to see Fiji from a more leisurely perspective. From where we were, we were at the North Eastern corner, at one of the very uninhabited islands, so there was nothing there. But the other part of Fiji is where all the tourists go. It’s supposed to be very luxurious. There is certainly very nice scenery, where the ocean is very clear. So it must be a nice place to visit.

Can you elaborate more on your experiences on the Fiji Island?

It was a lot tougher than it looks on television. For example, every episode that you see on TV is 45 minutes long, when you take out the commercials. It’s actually 3 days of actual real time. So it’s really 3 days of us really suffering. And they really do not give us any food or water off camera. So we were always really hungry. So unless if we win reward challenges, we don’t get to eat. There are mosquitoes and bugs everywhere. No toilet paper, no soap. We have 1 change of underwear and that’s it. One pair of shoes, so it’s pretty nasty.

Moving on to the table tennis aspect, as the Northern Californian Division Director of the NCTTA for the past few years, how do you like the future of collegiate table tennis in the Untied States?

I think we have a long way to go. In the last three years when I ran the division here, [I’ve] certainly seen an improvement in the number of schools participating and definitely in the quality of collegiate table tennis. But I think until we can get NCAA sanction and have more support from the schools, it’s a very, very tough road ahead of us to develop. For example, of the Northern Californian schools, most of them like UC Davis, Humboldt State, [and] you know like UC Berkeley, gets absolutely zero support from the school. So, in fact, in Berkeley when I first started, we didn’t even have a room to play in. In the second year, we finally got ourselves approved as an official sanctioned sport club, which took a lot of work. And then we were given a 4 hr block every week for a room to play in, again with no money to buy equipments to play [with]. So I had to donate 6 tables to play on and get them started. That was how difficult it was to get table tennis started in many of the schools.

Do you feel that many of the main problems are financial situations?

Yeah, it’s a financial [issue].There are many good players coming from junior ranks, there are many clubs that have many junior players. But [since] there is no support in the collegiate level, many of them lose interest and they don’t have time to play because they don’t have a scholarship program and so on. I am hoping with collegiate table tennis as a regular program, we could keep interest sustained and hope that they can continue to practice table tennis.

Table Tennis in the Untied States is a rather new sport, and has not much developed, unlike basketball and football. What do you think is a better way for audiences to better understand table tennis?

I think that for them to understand it, [there need] to have more television coverage. For example, when ESPN covered table tennis, and when Danny Seemiller did the commentary, it was very helpful because people watched it and [understood] that this was an 11 point game, that this was a loop. Commentary definitely helps. So I think with more television coverage, people would know more about it. You know, when you look at sports like basketball, I mean every kid on the street corner plays basketball. They know all the rules, they know all the techniques, I mean they see it on TV so we don’t need to really teach them. But with table tennis, everybody plays it in the basement, stupid basement pong games and rules because they never saw the real thing.

How did you get involved with the NCTTA?

I have been involved with the [Berkeley] club for a while. I [have] seen and worked with quite a number of coaches in the San Francisco Bay Area. I see a lot of very motivated and very high leveled juniors in the clubs, from grade school to elementary school to middle school, and I wonder what happened to them when they go to college, you know, suddenly they disappear. So when I decided to see what I can do to help participate in a college program, when I looked at Berkeley which was where I worked, [I] found out that there was a table tennis program where it was rather inactive. So I found a few college kids who were table tennis players and asked, “Hey, you should start a table tennis club and I’ll be your faculty advisor to sponsor you guys to get it back up and going.” So a couple of years ago when there was Collegiate Table Tennis Championships in California in Fremont, I was able to help out and got involved with them [in 2004].

How did you get involved with table tennis yourself?

Oh, I have always been playing. I’ve always been playing since I was a little kid. When I was at MIT, I was playing at the clubs and so on. So I’ve always been playing table tennis. And after I graduated from MIT and had a real job, I stopped for a while. I actually stopped for 20 years. Then when my little daughter wanted to play, I decided to start up again. I didn’t want to teach her, because I didn’t want to coach her. That’s when I started to look for clubs, and I was able to find so many good clubs in the Bay Area, and got her with a really good coach. And she got really interested and I continued playing, and I rekindled my interest and started to play again since I got back in.

Was there anything that started your table tennis career, or was it just pure interest?

It was just a thing that everyone was playing when I was growing up.

Where was this?

I grew up in Malaysia. So table tennis was one of the sports that….you know, table tennis and badminton was one of those classic sports that we played.

What was the most memorable moment in your table tennis career?

Let’s see, in one of the doubles tournament when I played with my daughter, I think we ended up in second place in one of the local tournaments. And that’s when she was 11 years old. And that was great.

How often do you practice these days?

I’ve been doing a lot more coaching. I train probably a few times a week. But I spend a lot more time coaching both young adults and adults.

Do you do any coaching with the Berkeley table tennis club?

Yeah, I do some coaching with them. When the school is in session I usually set up a robot to help them refine their techniques.

And how often do you do this?

They only meet twice a week, and I am only able to spend once a week with them.

How did your family react with you being on survivor?

Oh, they were very thrilled. When I first found out that I have the possibility of going on, I asked my family and they said “Sure, it’ll be cool,” so I had all the support.

Did you know that you were on Wikipedia?

Yeah (laughing), someone told me about it and I took a look. But I think I have to correct a few things on there. I don’t know who wrote the original.

How does it feel to be on Wikipedia?

Well I know that I have arisen as an actor (laughing).

How often does someone randomly on the street say, “Hey it’s that guy from Survivor, can I get your autograph?”

Probably a couple times a day.

Does that make you feel very good?

Well it does feel very good, but I hope that it doesn’t get old and tiresome right?

I guess when I go to the airport, that’s when I get a lot more people running into me.

What are your other hobbies outside of table tennis?

Woodworking and I do some gardening work in the back yard. I’m a fair weather cyclist. But I only ride it when the weather is nice, not when it’s too hot or too cold, or too windy.

What is your future with table tennis?

I think I’ll keep on playing until I’m too old. And then I’ll change to long pips, or something nasty. And do a lot of coaching.

One more question. What is your future with the NCTTA?

I hope to continue to participate. [But] because of my involvement with Survivor and other obligations with CBS for the next few months, I probably will not be able to be the Northern California Division Director for NCTTA for the coming year. But after all my obligations are over, and if there is a need for it, I will certainly be back to the division once again. And I’ll certainly volunteer for the national organization again, if required.

So you’ll come to umpire again, right?

Yeah, I’ll certainly continue to umpire.