SHANGHAI - Playing golf has become a
symbol of the newly rich and elite in China and as
such it has also become a target of public anger
and criticism amid a widening wealth gap in the
nation.
In the name of educating the
social elite, many prestigious universities are
beginning to make golf an essential course for
students in certain majors and are even building
golf courses on their campuses for training
purposes. But in the face of fierce
public criticism, some
institutions, such as elite Peking University,
have had to scrap their golf plans.
Public
anger climaxed recently as several Chinese
universities announced plans to build golf
training courses on campus. Critics say the
universities should devote their scarce resources
to education for the needy, instead of on a luxury
sport for the rich.
Golf may no longer be
regarded as a sport that is exclusively for the
rich in the West, but it certainly still is in
China. All but two of the country's 300 golf
courses are luxury country clubs that provide
services including dining, hotels and caddies.
At the Shanghai Sheshan Golf Club, where
the 2006 HSBC Champions Tournament was held
recently, a membership costs 1.45 million yuan
(US$181,250), about 10 years' salary for an IT
professional, or about 100 years' income for a
migrant worker.
Regarding golf as a luxury
sport, the tax authority levies a 23% consumption
tax on golf - the same amount it charges
nightclubs - compared with a 5% tax rate on other
sports.
Despite the skyrocketing
membership prices, golf has become trendy among
the country's rich, who love the sport, or the
luxury villas that are often developed together
with the golf courses, or simply the status it
represents.
New golf courses have been
popping up everywhere in recent years, prompting
the central government to impose a moratorium on
golf-course construction in 2004 to protect the
country's scarce land resources. The order,
however, has not been taken seriously by regional
governments trying to boost their local economies.
It is against such a background that Zhu
Congshi, president of Xiamen University City, has
become a target of public criticism after deciding
to build a golf training field on campus. Zhu
announced the plan to build "the most beautiful
golf training field on a Chinese university
campus" last month at a forum, when delivering a
speech on cultivating elites. He said golf would
become a compulsory course for his students in
management, law, economics and software.
In a widely read article published on the
popular Internet portal sina.com.cn, Chinese
scholar Xue Yong described the Xiamen university's
move as "corruption in [China's] higher
education".
"What is golf? It's just a
fashion brand that makes students feel cool and
trendy," argued Xue. His feelings are shared by
many Chinese, who believe that the university
should have spent the money on needy students,
rather than costly golf courses for rich students.
"Every Chinese university has about 30%
needy students. It's too early for Chinese
universities to build golf courses, which cost too
much in land resources and maintenance fees," said
Professor Xiong Bingqi with Shanghai Jiaotong
University.
If Xiamen University was
building other sports facilities, it probably
would not have faced so much opposition. In fact,
its swimming facility was built at a cost of 10
million yuan, five times the cost of the
three-hole golf training field it is building,
according to sources with the school.
But
Zhang Lianwei, China's best-known golfer, said
people were biased against golf. "If [Xiamen
University] was not building a golf training
field, but a soccer ground, would they get so many
objections?" said Zhang, during the recent HSBC
Sheshan golf tournament in Shanghai.
As
evidence of its confidence in the growing
importance of golf in China, HSBC invested US$5
million to support the four-day match. Zhang said
he could not think of any other sport that would
attract so much investment in such a short time.
Although Xiamen University City is
sticking to its golf training field plan, Peking
University has dropped a similar plan under public
pressure. "There are too many objections," said
university president Xu Zhihong.
Despite
the controversy, golf is becoming increasingly
popular among college students, who either regard
it as a new, healthy sport or an entrance ticket
to the business world where deals are often
clinched on golf courses.
Both Xiamen
University and Peking University have optional
golf classes, as do many other universities,
including the elite Tsinghua University. As few
universities have training fields for golf,
students usually practice at golf courses outside
the campus. Such classes are not expensive,
because many golf courses are willing to offer low
rates for college students - who could be their
loyal customers after graduation. When the class
was first opened in Xiamen University in 2005, the
seats were fully booked within half a day. The
program for its new golf course, with 60 seats,
has had 280 applicants.
However, with the
annual membership fee of golf clubs ranging
between 100,000 yuan to 300,000 yuan, golf is
still a symbol of the rich. Behind the heated
debate on college golf is Chinese anger over the
widening gap between the rich and the poor.
China's Gini coefficient, which is a way
of measuring inequality of distribution, has
reached a staggering 0.47, official figures show.
This indicates that the poorest 20% of the
population own 4.7% of the country's wealth, while
the richest 20% grab 50% of the national wealth,
according to United Nations figures.
What's worse, the high cost of higher
education has deprived many young people of the
opportunity to go to college. The average college
student's tuition fee is about 5,000 yuan, up from
800 yuan in 1996.
Ever since golf was
introduced into China in 1984, it has been a game
for the privileged. The first golf course in
China, built in Guangdong's Zhongshan City by the
late Hong Kong tycoon Fok Ying-tung, was a luxury
country club.
"A sport created by a
British shepherd is exaggerated into a pure
aristocrat thing," complained Zhang Xiaoning,
director of the small balls center of the State
Sports Administration, at a meeting of golf club
managers in early October.
With only 1.4
mu (15 mu = 1 hectare) of farmland per capita, the
Chinese government also worries that golf courses
will take away too much land and water resources,
with a standard golf course occupying 40 to 50
hectares of land, and using 3,000 cubic meters of
water every day.
There are frequent media
reports about golf courses being illegally built
in parks or on farmland, which is fueling the
public's anger towards the rich man's sport.
Stephen Wong is a freelance
write based in Shanghai.
(Copyright
2006 Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved.
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