 In 1989 he added the venerable All-England Championships to his tally; thus, by twenty-five, he captured all the titles by which "greatness" in the sport is generally measured.As a member of China's golden badminton generation of the 1980s which included the almost equally brilliant singles stars Zhao Jianhua and Xiong Guobao, Yang Yang played an important role in making China "the" major world badminton superpower.His play was instrumental in China's consecutive Thomas Cup (men's world team) titles in 1986, 1988, and 1990.