Dan Washburn's Blog, page 4

South China Morning Post gives Forbidden Game the full-page treatment

From the March 27, 2015, story by Bernice Chan:

For someone who has written a book about golf, it may come as a surprise to learn that Dan Washburn is rarely one to hit the greens. That’s because Washburn is not so much a golfer as an observer of how the game has exploded in China. In focusing on golf, his book, The Forbidden Game, also delves into the nature of growth in the country.

 

The boom has occurred despite a freeze on the construction of golf courses, and various facets of development on the mainland are reflected in the lives of the three characters forming his tale.

 

“Golf is a topic where you would expect the person writing the book to be a participant, but the book is also about China, that uses golf as an accessible way into the story,” says Washburn, who was in Hong Kong recently to speak about his book.

 

A former sports writer for a US newspaper, Washburn went to China in 2002 in search of his next adventure. He was feeling restless and wanted to try living abroad, he says. His father, a college professor, had just been on a tour of mainland universities and provided some contacts. Before long he was teaching conversational English and American literature in Shanghai.

 

On a trip to visit his brother in Hawaii, he bumped into the then golf editor at ESPN.com who was keen to cover the major tournaments in China and hired him for the assignment in 2005.

 

“We wanted to find out what these big tournaments were doing in China where, statistically, no one plays the game,” Washburn recalls.

Read the whole story here. And check out the shockingly large photo of me that accompanied the story below.

Profiled in South Korea’s Maeil Business Newspaper

While in Seoul last month, I was interviewed by the Maeil Business Newspaper, the primary daily business paper in South Korea. You can read the story here. I am told it’s good — has to be better than that photo.

Golf Digest calls Forbidden Game ‘an intriguing study’ and ‘an absorbing read’

Cliff Schrock writes:

The book shows how parallels between golf in China and the U.S. can be startling, especially with the pursuit of land, environmental bickering, the mix of rich/poor with both players and workers, the need for irrigation and watering, and the contradictions between what the national government says and how the local governments act. As Washburn presents it, these areas and more are in opposition to the aims named by the Chinese government. One area that is particularly fascinating is the cost to play in China. Although it can be expensive to play in America, a round of golf in China is often priced as high what a Chinese family gets for one-month’s pay. How the cost to play runs counter to the country’s culture is just one dynamic that makes this look at golf in China an absorbing read for anyone keeping tabs on golf’s potential growth.

Read the entire review at Golf Digest.

Houston Chronicle calls Forbidden Game ‘captivating’

Maggie Galehouse writes:

Golf and the complex world around it offer “a unique window into today’s China,” writes Dan Washburn, in his captivating book, “The Forbidden Game: Golf and the Chinese Dream.” The emergence and growth of golf in the world’s most populated country – some 1.35 billion people – is “a barometer for … the country’s rapid economic rise, but it is also symbolic of the less glamorous realities of a nation’s awkward and arduous evolution from developing to developed.”

Washburn, who appears at Asia Society Houston on Thursday, describes this paradoxical “banned but booming” golf culture through portraits of three people: Zhou (pronounced “Joe”) Xunshu, whose security job at a golf course leads to a passion for the game and the quest to become a pro; Wang (pronounced “Wong”) Libo, a former lychee farmer who sells some of his land to a luxury golf development; and Martin Moore, an American executive who has spent decades planning and building golf courses in Asia.

“I wanted people to learn something about China without feeling like they were learning about China,” says Washburn, who lives in New York and oversees content for the national Asia Society’s website. “Focusing on these men and their stories allowed me to do a lot more show than tell.”

Read the entire story at The Houston Chronicle.

Listen: NPR’s ‘Only a Game’ on Forbidden Game’s ‘especially intriguing characters’

Last month, NPR’s Bill Littlefield talked to me about The Forbidden Game and China’s complex relationship with golf for his “Only a Game” broadcast. You can listen to it here:

Bill also wrote some thoughts on the book. Here’s a taste:

Washburn focuses on the stories of three especially intriguing characters associated with the rise of golf in China, and in telling their stories he provides his readers with a sense of what the country was, is, and may become.

Finally, they also published an excerpt from The Forbidden Game. It’s one of my favorite passages, and you can read it here.

Financial Times names Forbidden Game one of the best books of 2014

“Nice list to make.” That was the subject line from an email I received shortly after The Financial Times came out with its list of the Best Books of 2014. That’s an understatement. So amazingly honored to be included.

Los Angeles Review of Books puts Forbidden Game on holiday gift list

Big thanks to Austin L. Dean for including The Forbidden Game on the Los Angeles Review of Books list of last-minute holiday gift ideas. Just a few shopping days left!

TimeOut Shanghai names Forbidden Game one of 2014’s best China books

TimeOut Shanghai said its year-end list of the best China books “taught us something remarkable about how China is changing in 2014.” Honored to be included on the list, which also featured works by Evan Osnos, Howard French, Amy Tan, and others.

Listen: Dan Washburn talks Forbidden Game on Sinica podcast

While in Beijing recently, I sat down with Kaiser Kuo and Jeremy Goldkorn to record an episode of their popular Sinica podcast. You can listen to it below, or read more at ChinaFile.

Jack Nicklaus on golf in China: ‘They keep changing the rules every week’

Over the years, golf legend Jack Nicklaus has been one of the most prolific course architects working in China. But it’s clear the place has even the Golden Bear a bit befuddled.

Speaking with Bloomberg’s Shelby Holliday recently, Nicklaus understandably appeared a bit frustrated by the current state of things in China, where the government keeps “changing the rules every week.” You can watch the interview — which focuses on Nicklaus’ design work and the general state of the game globally — above, but I’ve transcribed the China section here:

SH: Where is demand the greatest for golf?

 

JN: Right now, it’s really kind of odd because China’s probably the greatest demand for it, but the Chinese government, golf is not recognized as a sport. They haven’t really set what the rules are.

 

SH: They change the rules.

 

JN: They keep changing the rules every week. That’s because they don’t understand what it is.

The Nicklaus Design website says Nicklaus has 18 courses open for play in mainland China, and three currently under development — although you have to wonder how fast those are moving ahead given the current crackdown on golf courses occurring in the country.