We hear talk often of the trade deficit with Asian markets as cheaply made products from that continent, specifically from the nation of China, crowd out the more expensively produced western goods in stores on this side of the globe. Western products get re-imagined and re-engineered over there because, in part, of cheaper labor, and then consumers in the west choose the cheaper product. And who can blame them? But here’s a story about an import to China that won’t and can’t be undercut and sold back to the west.

It involves a Canadian man named J. Howard Crocker. Let’s call him Howard. He worked in the early 1900s for an international organization that assigned him to the (at that time British-held) Chinese city of Shanghai. The organization shipped him off to China in 1911 with a farewell banquet and its best wishes for success in his new venture. So, even though he knew little about China and had worries that he would fit in over there, Howard agreed to go.

When he arrived, Howard found the organization’s organization in shambles. Offices in several Chinese cities didn’t coordinate with each other. There was overlapping territory, lack of coverage in other places where should be some, and almost zero cooperation or even communication going on between the offices. So, after being given the go-ahead from the home office, Howard set about re-organizing things. His efforts paid off pretty quickly. Within a short time, things in the China branch were humming along. Howard managed to bring people together. He borrowed a phrase from a fellow Canadian and touted the slogan, “The Joy of Effort” to represent doing your best in a job and enjoying the results.

But then, in 1912, China experienced a revolution. The emperor (and the power behind him) was toppled and replaced with a president. Rather than meeting opposition from the new regime, Howard found that China’s new leaders welcomed his group and promoted it. That led Howard to begin a wide ranging campaign of building offices and facilities throughout China in an effort to spread the goals of his organization. And rather than meeting opposition to what he was doing, the Chinese people embraced it eagerly.

By 1915, Howard realized that ultimate success in China depended not on bringing Canadian or other foreigners to China but rather to train native Chinese people to work for his group. The locals in turn would train other locals, and so on and so on. Soon, this thing was found in every city and hamlet in the nation, and it is still there today. In fact, China excels at it.

Now, this was fairly radical for Howard’s time, given that the western mentality of colonialism remained strong in most western mindsets. But Howard found success in training locals to take over the jobs that had been held by westerners. Now, to be fair, Howard was sort of forced into this because World War I took many of his western workers away from China, but the result was that the local people his group trained spread what he and his group had brought with them throughout the country much better than Howard ever thought his group could.

Eventually, because the Canadian war effort needed his organizational skills, Howard was recalled to Canada, but what he and his organization left behind in China is now today one of that nation’s greatest sources of pride. When J. Howard Crocker died in 1959, he had no idea that the thing he had introduced into China would make it one of the world’s leaders in that area.

What was it that Howard brought to China and in which it is now one of the world leaders in? Well, the organization Howard worked for was the International Organization of the YMCA, and the thing he gave to China, the thing that they’re one of the world’s best in is volleyball.