Wang, who had a useful amateur career in China, coached Olympic champion Ma Lin when he was a junior in the mid-1980s and hopes his next champion will come from Otago.
The 55-year-old first picked up a table tennis bat when he was 7 and started taking the sport seriously when he went to junior table tennis school as a 9-year-old.
But Wang was forced to put his table tennis career on hold during the Chinese Cultural Revolution in 1966.
"School stop, study stop, everything stop," Wang said, in a heavy Chinese accent.
"Almost eight years I never play."
Wang eventually returned to the sport and in 1999 helped the Liaoning province win the team title in the Chinese amateur contest and claimed third place in the singles the same year.
He migrated to Fiji in 2001 and got the opportunity to come to New Zealand in 2006.
Keen to reverse its flagging fortunes, the Otago Table Tennis Association brought Wang to New Zealand on a two-year contract to help rejuvenate the sport.
He had an immediate impact both as a player and a coach.
He helped the Otago men's team win the South Island Open for the first time in 15 years and also won the South Island Open individual title last year, beating players half his age.
However, the association was unable to continue funding Wang so Dunedin businessman and table tennis enthusiast Peter Hau provided a sponsorship package which allowed the association to extend Wang's contract for a further 12 months.
The 28-year-old is one of the co-founders and creative directors of local website business Vouchermate.co.nz and wanted to put something back into the sport.
"I just had an idea that I wanted to help table tennis as a whole because it has really helped me develop as a person," Hau explained yesterday.
"I've heard a lot of people say Otago used to be the best table tennis region and I thought it was a great opportunity to give something back to our community," Hau said.
As well as training the Otago squads, Wang will visit Otago schools to promote and develop the sport.
He was at College Street School in Caversham yesterday.
