Synopses & Reviews
In China, just because something is banned, doesn't mean it can't boom... Statistically, zero percent of the Chinese population plays golf, still known as the "rich mans game" and considered taboo. Yet China is in the midst of a golf boom hundreds of new courses have opened in the past decade, despite it being illegal for anyone to build them. Award-winning journalist Dan Washburn charts a vivid path through this contradictory country by following the lives of three men intimately involved in China's bizarre golf scene. We meet Zhou, a peasant turned golf pro who discovered the game when he won a job as a security guard at one of the new, exclusive clubs and who sees himself entering the emerging Chinese middle class as a result; Wang, a lychee farmer whose life is turned upside down when a massive, top-secret golf resort moves in next door to his tiny village; and Martin, a Western executive maneuvering through Chinas byzantine and highly political business environment, ever watchful for Beijing's "golf police." The Forbidden Game is a rich and arresting portrait of the worlds newest superpower and three different paths to the new Chinese Dream.
Review
"The Forbidden Game offers a thoroughly new window onto the 'Chinese Dream.' As veteran 'China watcher' Dan Washburn engrossingly reveals, it transpires that the game of golf is a barometer for all Chinas current concerns—economic growth, 'social harmony,' corruption, the growing wealth gap and, most absorbing, the hopes and aspirations of at least one Chinese man whos daring to dream of a better future." —Paul French, bestselling author of Midnight in Peking
Review
"Tackles great themes...brings China to life...Gripping and revealing." -
Economist"A charming and accessible work." - Businessweek
"A delightful read that can be enjoyed this summer in between time on the links, or make a holiday gift later in the year." - The Beijinger
"An illuminating portrait of modern China." - New Statesman
"Rigorously reported...Washburn captures China's shift from its agrarian roots toward more Western pursuits in this engaging story." Publishers Weekly
"The Forbidden Game offers a thoroughly new window onto the 'Chinese Dream.' As veteran 'China watcher' Dan Washburn engrossingly reveals, it transpires that the game of golf is a barometer for all Chinas current concernseconomic growth, 'social harmony,' corruption, the growing wealth gap and, most absorbing, the hopes and aspirations of at least one Chinese man whos daring to dream of a better future." Paul French, bestselling author of Midnight in Peking
"From a bourgeois pastime denounced by the Communist Party of China, golf became the embodiment of the new Chinese dream. The Forbidden Game speaks volumes about how much this country has changed. You can learn more from this engaging, well-written book about golf than from weightier tomes that have tried to tackle Chinas transformation. A hole in one from Dan Washburn." Barbara Demick, author of Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea and Logavina Street: Life and Death on a Sarajevo Street
"Im not a golfer or a Sinophile, but The Forbidden Game spoke to me. At its core, it is classic storytellingunderdog tales of struggle, perseverance and overcoming adversity. The men in this book may not be perfect, but they are real people you can root for. Its like the quintessential American Dream story, only its set in China.' Brian Grazer, award-winning producer of television and film, including Best Picture Oscar winner A Beautiful Mind
"The stunning rise of China is usually told through upheaval in the country's politics and the economy. Dan Washburn has been smart enough to spot a much underestimated way to tell the talethe phenomenon of golfa sport which has thrived even as it has been repressed. The story of golf ("green opium" in the words of some government officials) has it all in Chinafrom the wild west developments of courses to inspiring stories of success and dark politics."
Richard McGregor, author of The Party: The Secret World of China's Communist Rulers and Washington Bureau Chief for the Financial Times
"The Forbidden Game is an important and fascinating work. By taking us deep into China's secret golf culture, Dan Washburn brings to life the contradictions and complications of this unique nations struggles with modernityas well as an inspiring group of home-grown players who have paved the way for the rising generation of Chinese pros." Alan Shipnuck, senior writer at Sports Illustrated and author of Bud, Sweat and Tees
"In his revealing and witty new book, Dan Washburn unearths a story that nobody knows: how the game that Chairman Mao denounced as the 'sport for millionaires' stirred the dreams of farmers and soldiers, tantalized foreign pioneers, and provoked a Chinese crackdown. This is a tale about golf no more than Seabiscuit is a story about horseracing. This is twenty-first-century China in all its vivid, surprising, and human contradictions." Evan Osnos, author of Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth and Faith in the New China
"The Forbidden Game is a propulsive chronicle of an old pursuit thrust into a country undergoing colossal change. But more than that, it's a richly drawn, deeply felt portrait of human strivinga great story." Tom Vanderbilt, bestselling author of Traffic and Survival City
"Sometimes the best way into the heart of an enigma is through a backdoor. With The Forbidden Game, Dan Washburn has opened just such a portal for anyone finding the Peoples Republic of Chinas unexpected progress perplexing to understand, much less to explain. By giving us a grand tour of the surprising boom in the game of golf in China, he not only illuminates a very concrete slice of life, but gives us a graphic and readable sense of both the energy and inertia that lay at the center of the contradictory phenomena that has come to be known as 'Chinas rise.'" Orville Schell, Director of the Center on US-China Relations and author of Wealth and Power: Chinas Long March to the Twenty-First Century
"Every bit as energetic and ambitious as the burgeoning China it so evocatively portrays, The Forbidden Game is a truly memorable feat of reporting and storytelling. By chronicling the ascent of golf in a nation whose newfound affluence has brought it as much turmoil as joy, Dan Washburn gets to the heart of what makes China's messy rise one of the century's most compelling tales. A book this richly observed and deeply humane is an all-too-rare beast these days; read it, and then cherish it." Brendan I. Koerner, author of The Skies Belong to Us
"When I picked up The Forbidden Game, I had absolutely no interest in golf or any of its ramificationsor so I thought. Once I began reading, I became genuinely engrossed by the dreams, disappointments and achievements of the colorful cast of characters here. The security guard who turns himself into one of Chinas first professional golfers; the lychee farmer who finds an enormous resort complex springing up around him; the Chinese governmental and business entrepreneurs with dreams of transforming their cities fortunes, and their own; the foreign athletes and experts in the middle of this frenzy and only half understanding it. It is a rich and fascinating drama on its own terms, and a wonderful portrait of China at this stage of its growth and confusion. It even made me care, a little, about golf." James Fallows, author of Postcards from Tomorrow Square and China Airborne
Synopsis
In October 2015, the Chinese Communist Party banned its 88 million members from excessive drinking, improper sexual relationships... and holding golf club memberships. But, with "the rich man's game" about to appear in the Olympics for the first time in 112 years, they also began to spend unprecedented sums on their own national golf team.
Through the lives of three men intimately involved in China's bizarre golf scene, Dan Washburn paints an arresting portrait of a country of contradictions. A villager named Wang sees his life transformed when a top-secret golf resort springs up next to his farm - despite the building of golf courses being illegal. Western executive Martin, whose firm manages the construction of golf courses, is always looking over his shoulder for Beijing's "golf police". And for security guard Zhou, making it as a professional golfer could be his way into China's new middle class. Using the unique lens of The Forbidden Game, Washburn gleans rich insights into the politics and people of one of the most powerful and enigmatic nations on earth.
About the Author
Dan Washburn is an award-winning reporter and managing editor at the Asia Society. His writing has appeared in the
FT Weekend Magazine, the
Atlantic,
The Economist,
ESPN.com,
Foreign Policy,
Golf World,
Slate, the
South China Morning Post, and other publications. Washburn's work has been featured in the anthologies
Unsavory Elements: Stories of Foreigners on the Loose in China and
Inside the Ropes: Sportwriters Get Their Game On. He is also the founding editor of
Shanghaiist.com, one of the most widely read English-language websites about China. After almost a decade spent living in China, he now lives in Brooklyn, New York.
Table of Contents
Prologue1. Foundations
2. First Club
3. Keep Moving
4. Playing the Game
5. No Choice
6. The Mountain Is High
7. Scrape the Bone, Dry the Glass
8. Time to Make Claims
9. Homecomings
10. Striking Black
11. The Golf Police
12. The Road Is Wider
13. Chasing the Next Dream
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
Index