When it’s political of course.
In an earlier post I speculated about the possible China Golf Wars between decadent foreign club-swinging executives and China’s politically super-correct government bureaucrats. Well the “green opium” sport seems to be seems to be gaining local ground. It appears that golf has become the latest fashion among wealthy Chinese as a symbol of social status. (Is this really surprising to anyone?)For example, Jack Nicklaus was recently in town teaching a children’s clinic at the Pine Valley Golf Resort and Club in Beijing. In the past 20 years, more than 200 courses have sprung up in China, including the world’s largest — the 10-course Mission Hills resort in Shenzhen. And then there’s the Beijing Open, a new tournament with $500,000 in prize money. All of this elitist pastel palaver grates on certain Chinese worker sensibilities. And who can blame them? With income disparities what they are, golf symbolizes Western salt in the wounds of those millions of Chinese who struggle just to survive. Sure, it’s an old story of class and conflict. But in China it still remains a very powerful one.
