Golf in China

choi

Golf in China | Birdies, Bribes and Bulldozers; What the rise of golf says about economic change in the Middle Kingdom. Economist, June 14, 2014
www.economist.com/news/books-and ... -birdies-bribes-and
(book review on Dan Washburn, The Forbidden Game; Golf and the Chinese Dream. Oneworld, 2014)

Quote:

“For Mr Washburn golf is symbolic not only of China’s economic rise but also of ‘the less glamorous realities of a nation’s awkward and arduous evolution from developing to developed: corruption, environmental neglect, disputes over rural land rights and an ever-widening gap between rich and poor.’

“The victims of China’s golf boom are the same people who suffer from other mega-developments: the peasants. When well-connected developers bulldoze villages, the inhabitants are compensated, but they do not get a choice. Mr Washburn describes peasants who rioted after receiving barely a tenth of the payout to which they were entitled. Their protest earned them only tear gas and jail.

Note:
(a)
(i) Washburn (surname)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washburn_(surname)
(ii) Oneworld Publications
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oneworld_Publications
(Founded 1986; Headquarters London)

(b) “One day Mr Zhou’s bosses were testing some new drivers. * * * someone let him have a go and, to gasps of disbelief, he smashed the ball over the hill at the end of the driving range—dead straight.”
(i) ZHOU Xunshu 周 训书
(ii) golf
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golf
(“When the initial shot on a hole is intended to move the ball a long distance (typically more than 225 yards (206 m)), the shot is commonly called a ‘drive’ and is generally made with a long-shafted, large-headed wood club called a ‘driver’”)
(iii) driving range
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Driving_range
(for practice; is part of a golf course or stands alone)

(c) “He [Washburn] tackles these great themes indirectly, by interweaving the stories of three men whose lives were affected by the golf boom. One is Mr Zhou * * * Hugely talented but utterly skint, Mr Zhou struggled for years to make a living playing a rich man’s game. He travelled to tournaments on slow trains because he could not afford to fly and slept in sordid flophouses miles from the courses.”
(i) skint (adj; etymology: alteration of skinned, past participle of skin; First Known Use: circa 1925): "chiefly British: PENNILESS"
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/skint
(ii) from various dictionaries:

flophouse (n; hobo slang flop (v): ‘lie down to sleep’): “a cheap hotel”

(d) “The book’s other main characters are Martin Moore, an American who builds golf courses, and Wang Libo, a lychee farmer whose land is bulldozed to make way for one. * * * The local mayor insisted that he [Moore] join him for a booze-up and a public execution. Mr Moore watched drunkenly as two drug-smugglers were placed on a stool and shot. He couldn’t refuse this grisly hospitality because golf-course-developers cannot operate without friends in government. * * * Many new courses appeared to make no economic sense—the owners couldn’t plausibly recoup their costs by charging green fees.”
(i) For booze-up (n), see
booze (vi; Middle English bousen, from Middle Dutch būsen): “to drink intoxicating liquor especially to excess —often used in the phrase booze it up“
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/booze
(ii) drunken (adj): “unsteady or lurching as if from alcoholic intoxication”
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/drunken
(iii) green fee (n; also greens fee): “a fee paid for the privilege of playing on a golf course”
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/green%20fee
(A) green (n): “PUTTING GREEN”
(B) golf course
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golf_course
(section 4 Putting green)