Big claims are par for the course in China by Mure Dickie, March 11 2006 on www.ft.com
Chinese academics have sparked controversy in the world of golf by contesting Scotland's claim to have invented that strangely popular way of using clubs and balls to spoil a good walk.
The longstanding Chinese theory, to be showcased anew in an exhibition that opens at Hong Kong's Heritage Museum this month, is based on murals and paintings that show imperial courtiers playing a golf-like game long before Scotland's first documented reference in the 15th century.
This grab for golfing glory is no isolated incident. China's passion for claiming inventions and discoveries exceeds even that of the Scots (who claim to have given the world everything from the telephone to the study of economics).
In January, state media announced the discovery of cliff paintings suggesting Chinese were "adept skiers as early as the Stone Age". Last year, China bolstered its claim to credit for pasta-type dishes with discovery of a 4,000-year-old bowl of noodles in western Qinghai province.
Amid China's re-emergence as an international power, such claims to cultural and scientific precocity strike a global chord. World football body Fifa, keen to cultivate the country, has already given recognition to the theory that the game owes its origins to China's ancient state of Qi. And retired British submariner Gavin Menzies has won fame and fortune with his thinly-argued thesis that Chinese sailors mapped the Americas long before Columbus.
Such claims often appear less than solid. China's borders have only enveloped the sites of the ancient skiers and noodle-slurpers in relatively modern times. There is also a shortage of evidence linking classical Chinese ball games with today's golf and football. And Mr Menzies' argument for the discovery of America appears too far-fetched even for nationalist Chinese scholars.
There is no denying the appeal to Beijing of stressing national historical achievements, however. The "Four Great Inventions" - paper, printing, gunpowder and the compass - are a staple of Chinese children's "patriotic education".
Still, some in China take a more nuanced view. Local discussion of the Great Inventions often centres on why they found their greatest development in upstart Europe.
Indeed, the fact that many classical discoveries were later completely forgotten is a reminder of a key reason why China was eventually eclipsed: its failure to invent anything like western science, with its sceptical philosophy, shared nomenclature and peer reviews.
These days, China is trying to make up lost ground, promoting greater innovation to reduce the dominance of foreign companies' technology and brands. After all, China's historical golfing credentials will not help local sporting goods retailers and manufacturers accused of selling counterfeit clubs.
Perhaps if the ancient Chinese had been really smart, they would have invented not golf, but intellectual property rights.
The writer is the FT's Beijing correspondent
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