I am Dan Washburn, an American writer based in Shanghai, China. I am currently researching an as-yet-publisherless book about the development of golf in China. Golf, its emergence and growth in China, is a barometer for the country's rapid economic rise. But golf is also symbolic of the less glamorous realities of a nation's awkward and arduous evolution from developing to developed — historical prejudice, class struggle, political corruption, environmental neglect, and an ever-widening gap between rich and poor. This website is dedicated to some of my work on the topic. My writing has appeared in such publications as Slate, Financial Times Weekend Magazine, Foreign Policy, ESPN.com, Golf World, GOOD, Budget Travel, Economist.com, Outside's GO, Business China (part of The Economist), Baseball America and the South China Morning Post. In 2008, a piece of mine was featured in the book Inside The Ropes: Sportswriters Get Their Game On, an anthology of the best of participatory sports journalism. (more)

Click on the images to see the two NBC Nightly News clips related to Par for China.

Click here to read Steven Jiang's CNN.com story about Chinese pro golfer Zhou Xunshu and my research on golf in China.

From Shanghai-based Daedalum Films, a 17-minute film inspired by the Par for China book project:

Note: This video is hosted by Vimeo.com, which is currently blocked in China.

"The Forbidden Game," my Slate Magazine piece featuring China's 'golf police,' bulldozed fairways and plenty of local politics ran in March 2010. Be sure to check out the companion photo essay with images from Ryan Pyle.

In February 2010 I teamed up with Shanghai-based documentary photographer Ryan Pyle for a photo essay in Foreign Policy entitled "China’s Golf Obsession."

I began 2010 with a Financial Times Weekend Magazine cover story ( “Golf’s secret boom in Hainan, China” ) which examines a highly secretive and controversial golf construction project that, when completed, will be the largest collection of courses in the world — nearly 1.5 times the size of Manhattan.

I wrote the November 9, 2009 cover story for Condé Nast’s Golf World magazine, “Last Call,” which profiled China’s pioneering pro golfers, whose window of opportunity for competitive success might be closing. Read the story here.

In November 2009, I filed five stories for ESPN.com from the HSBC Champions golf tournament in Shanghai, which ended in a final day showdown between the world’s top two golfers, Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson. You can find introductions and links to all five stories here.

Read my series on golf in China on the worldwide leader in sports:

• Zhou makes remarkable leap into professional golf
• How they got to the China Tour
• Golf in China: All growing, all new, all raw
• Washburn: Q&A with Zhang Lianwei
• Golf still an elitist pursuit in China
• Golf in China grows bigger by the day
• Chinese events bring interesting questions

The Wall Street Journal's Jonathan Cheng interviewed me for his story "Beijing Pulls Out Its Driver," which appeared in the November 27, 2009 print edition. You can read the story here.