China, Taiwan Both Lay Claim to Jeremy Lin

By PAUL MOZUR And JENNY W. HSU

TAIPEI—Though most are just content to watch basketball phenomenon Jeremy Lin play, the Taiwanese-American's performance over the past two weeks has led both Chinese and Taiwanese to lay claim to Mr. Lin, opening up a debate in social and traditional media about just who the Harvard graduate represents in Asia.

New York Knicks' Jeremy Lin at a game in Toronto on Tuesday.

In Taiwan, American influence looms large and the island has its own professional basketball and baseball leagues. But the interest in those sports has often outstripped the island's ability to produce internationally recognized talent. Unsurprisingly, when an exceptional player with Taiwan ties like Mr. Lin comes along, the Taiwanese are quick to hold him up as a Taiwanese hero.

It would be an understatement to say Taiwan has a bad case of "Linsanity." Mr. Lin has been on the front page of every major Taiwan newspaper and local malls have taken to broadcasting Knicks games in public spaces.

Even Taiwan's normally staid financial analysts have gotten into the spirit: In an email, one analyst attributed the Taiwan stock-market rally early Wednesday to Mr. Lin's game-winning shot.

Not to be bested, supporters in mainland China have also gone wild, and as of Wednesday Mr. Lin had more than a million fans on the Chinese microblogging site Weibo. Chinese television stations have also covered his rise extensively, albeit with occasional edits that blur out references to Taiwan—underscoring the geopolitical tensions that frame the debate about Mr. Lin.

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New York Knicks guard Jeremy Lin celebrated with teammates Tyson Chandler and Landry Fields (2) after his game-winning 3-pointer against the Toronto Raptors on Feb. 14.

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Though Taiwan has de facto sovereignty, most of its population are ethnically Chinese and China continues to claim Taiwan as a part of China and has not ruled out the use of force to take the island. As a result, China often uses its influence to make sure Taiwan does not signal in any way that it is an independent country and thus teams from Taiwan are often forced to play under confusing euphemisms, like Chinese Taipei in international competitions.

And Chinese, who mostly consider Taiwan a part of China, therefore believe that Mr. Lin is as much Chinese as he is Taiwanese, a belief that angers many Taiwanese who view the functioning democracy as a country that should be given full credit for the accomplishments of its citizens or those with family ties to Taiwan. Mr. Lin's father's family has been in Taiwan for several generations, while his grandmother emigrated from Zhejiang, China, during the Chinese civil war. Mr. Lin was born and raised in the U.S.

Mr. Lin has thus far managed to steer clear of controversy by giving a nod to both his Taiwan and Chinese heritage, but if history is any guide, Mr. Lin's politicization is unlikely to stop there. In 2010 a controversy broke out over Taiwanese female golf prodigy and current No. 1 ranked Yani Tseng, who local media reported rejected an offer of $25 million from a Chinese company to change her citizenship from Taiwan to China.

Though Mr. Lin is American, fans in Taiwan will no doubt pay attention where Asian sponsorship money originates from. Many also scrutinize how his heritage is referred to by the international sports media.

Chris Wang, a journalist and author of the basketball blog Taiwan Hoops, said Taiwanese are used to the Chinese claiming their stars: "Whenever a Taiwanese athlete or player or scientist makes his reputation oversees, both China and Taiwan fight for the bragging rights. And definitely Taiwanese think of Jeremy Lin as…a son of Taiwan because his parents came from Taiwan and now Chinese television is making the same claims, saying he's from Zhejiang or some place," he said. "This is crazy but it's normal at the same time, because it's happened so often in the past."

But not everyone is taking the debate so seriously, many on China's Weibo reposted a comedic Taiwanese television program showing a fake Chinese official saying "the important thing is if you have yellow skin and black hair you're Chinese," as he lays claim to a whole variety of famous Asians and Asian-Americans. Meanwhile a Weibo poster under the screen name Life Without Borders pointed how Mr. Lin's faith likely characterizes his own identity: "in the end who is Jeremy Lin? Is he American? Is he Taiwanese? Is he Chinese? Or is he God's?"

Mr. Wang added that Taiwanese are already taking a deeper interest in the Knicks, digging through the roster and learning about the team. If Mr. Lin's influence proves anything like that of former Yankees stand-out pitcher Chien-ming Wang, who won the island over to the Yankees, the Knicks are likely to have a new, 23-million strong fan base on their hands.

Eric Chang, an avid NBA fan and Taiwanese American living in Taiwan, said beyond the Chinese "haters" who debate Mr. Lin's heritage, more important is what Mr. Lin is doing for Asian-Americans in the U.S. Despite several incidents in which sports commentators making disparaging remarks about Asian-Americans and boxer Floyd Mayweather attributing Mr. Lin's fame to him being Asian-American, Mr. Chang said Mr. Lin's success shows how much the U.S. is a "melting pot."

"Jeremy is helping break down the walls for Asian-Americans; Asian-American males are generally underrepresented in professional U.S. sports, and he's smashing down those barriers," he said.

Mr. Chang added that on the public basketball courts of the southern Taiwan city of Tainan where he lives, kids are already imitating how Mr. Lin drives to the basket and runs the pick and roll.

In a recent interview Mr. Lin gave a nod to Taiwan saying, "I love going to Taiwan and I'm going to be there every summer, so to all the Taiwanese fans I can't wait to see them again this summer."

Write to Paul Mozur at http://www.360doc.com/mailto:paul.mozur@dowjones.com