You’re My Jeremy Lin: Why He Fascinates The Chinese American Community

By Guest Writer | Tuesday, February 21, 2012 | 30 Comments

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8a linsanity You’re My Jeremy Lin: Why He Fascinates The Chinese American Community

By Gregory

My Dad sent me this email a few days ago:

You must have heard of this kid, Jeremy Lin, a Knick basketball player. His rise to stardom just a week ago really drives all my friends here crazy. I’m excited too, though not as crazy. I guess it’s because he is a California kid with parents from Taiwan like me and all our friends. When I see and/or hear about him I’m always thinking about you and I feel like I was looking at my son. In my mind you’re my Jeremy Lin.

I knew that shit had just gotten real. Jeremy Lin wasn’t just teetering on the cusp of pop iconography. If he had reached my parents, isolated from anything relevant in a house buried in the farmlands of New Jersey, then he was a full-fledge rip roaring pop God.

By now, all of you have heard of Jeremy Lin. Even if you’ve never seen a basketball game in your life. I’ll still give a quick summary. Jeremy Lin is an American-born Taiwanese basketball player who was undrafted after playing for Harvard (did you expect anything less from a Chinese basketball player?). He was cut from two teams and played in the NBA D-League (D stands for “developmental,” it’s not a grade… as if Lin was capable of getting anything lower than an A-). He was picked up by the Knicks with an unguaranteed contract which meant he could be cut at any time and not receive any more money.

He was inserted into a game against the Nets and had a break out game. Since then the team has won 7 in a row, climbed out of the basement of the standings and Lin is now a global superstar.

But what is it about Lin that fascinates us Chinese so much?

There’s the obvious fact that Lin is Chinese. You can count on one hand how many Chinese players there have been in the NBA. Yao Ming is the most famous. But Yao wasn’t born in America. Lin was. That makes him so much more relatable to the Chinese living in the US.

Speaking of Yao, it’s not a stretch of the imagination by any means that he was a star in the NBA. The guy is seven and half feet tall! How could he not play in the NBA? Sure he has the skill to back it up but his height was such a huge factor. It’s hard to think he’s even the same species as us.

Lin at six feet three inches is barely an adequate height for the NBA. While he would be considered tall for regular people, he’s not unrelatable tall. Most people will never know someone who is seven and half feet tall let alone a Chinese someone. But you might know a Chinese guy close to Lin’s height. In fact, I do. Me.

I’m six foot three inches also. I’m Chinese. I was born in America. If I had the talent, ambition, drive, physical skills and work ethic, I could’ve been Jeremy Lin. Right?

Maybe not, but that’s how he hits us American Born Chinese. Perhaps a small part of us believes that we could be him. Or at least we could know somebody like him. He could be a friend’s brother, a cousin, a classmate from school.

Or in my Dad’s case, someone’s son.

I know what my Dad meant in the email and it was very sweet. But it makes me laugh in the way that it came out. That is so often the case with 2nd generation kids and their 1st generation parents. The language barrier creates more often than not, unpredictably hilarious comments. But I’ve learned to look past that and see what they really mean.

But my Dad’s backhanded compliment does bring up a sobering fact. Scores of Chinese parents will be comparing their kids to Jeremy Lin. Whereas before we simply had to worry about being compared to our successful doctor and lawyer friends, now add NBA superstar to that list.

“Why can’t you run the pick and roll like Jeremy Lin??” coming to a Chinese dinner table near you.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Gregory Tung is a writer living in Los Angeles. He is the creator of the blog, Scare Yourself Every Day, a year-long project in which he tries to do one thing a day that scares himself.

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Facebook Comments (Beta)

Biffer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXOOsZ9q9Rc
TienVNguyen

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ANOTHER JEREMY LIN POST
moye

@TienVNguyen YOU’RE WELCOME!!!!!
Keith Oh

I know you threw in the allusion to his grade as a joke, but if you believe the news reports, Jeremy’s GPA at Harvard was 3.1, so he had quite a few grades that were lower than an A-.

I remember reading during the run up to the Beijing Olympics that most mainland Chinese believed that the Han race is not well suited for sports that are dominated by races descended from Africa and Europe (e.g. track and field). For this reason, Chinese hurdler Liu Xiang was practically a deity in China when he won gold in the 2004 Olympics. Perhaps part of the reason that first generation Chinese are so infatuated with Jeremy Lin is due to this sentiment.
Elliott

“Perhaps a small part of us believes that we could be him. Or at least we could know somebody like him. He could be a friend’s brother, a cousin, a classmate from school.”

So… you’re saying… that Jeremy Lin is like the Chinese/Taiwanese-American Ron Jeremy? Ron Jeremy Lin?
Elliott

@Biffer Jesus Christ, give it a rest:

“While in the car, Lin’s uncle volunteered his views on one of the most contentious questions on the Internet about Jeremy Lin and his family: whether they are Taiwanese or Chinese. “For sure, they are Taiwanese,” Lin Chi Chung said. “I spoke to Jeremy Lin’s father, who is my younger brother, and he said, ‘Make sure you point this out.’ ””

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/16/sports/basketball/jeremy-lins-grandmother-watches-along-with-taiwan.html?_r=1

If you speak Mandarin Chinese, you should know that the English word “Chinese” stands in for everything from 中國人 to 漢人 to 華人. Let me know the next time you see a PRC flag waving at a Knicks game. In the meantime, enjoy all the 青天白日滿地紅.
Biffer

Jeremy has spoken. Nuff said.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXOOsZ9q9Rc
JustinChen

to guest writer. you’re an idiot. Jeremy Lin as you stated, is TAWAINESE BORN which means he is NOT chinese as you state multiple times in your incorrectly written article.
JustinChen

@Biffer http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/16/sports/basketball/jeremy-lins-grandmother-watches-along-with-taiwan.html?pagewanted=2&_r=2
Biffer

@JustinChen

Let’s leave it up to Jeremy, shall we?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXOOsZ9q9Rc
yyang

So are you saying people from Taiwan are not any of those three things? 中國人, 漢人, and 華人 != PRC. The only relation is that CCP is the ruling party of mainland. That’s pretty much it. If KMT takes over tomorrow the word is not going change its meaning.

I said this before, and I think this also applies to most of the hardcore Taiwanese not Chinese crowds. Chinese also means the culture and the ethnicity. If you use it in political context, I can respect that.

However, if one turns their back on their entire ethnicity and culture because of politics, well, that’s their choice. The whole thing is pretty stupid as Taiwanese and Chinese are NOT mutually exclusive. One can be both.

As for JLin, I doubt he cared before, and given the controversy it has generated. I imagine he will either say something like Chinese by ethnicity and Taiwan by root, or not say anything at all so not to alienate his fans (and more importantly his family and friends)
Elliott

@yyang

“So are you saying people from Taiwan are not any of those three things?”

No, that’s not what I’m saying at all. People from Taiwan are 1) mostly 華人, 2) could also be 漢人 (e.g. our aborigines are not), but 3) *are definitely not* 中國人. Venn diagrams would be useful here.

I’d agree that the main difference 60 years ago is in the different ruling parties… but by this day and age, the cultures have also evolved in entirely different directions as to have become drastically different. The only thing that has remained constant is the ethnicity… which I think you’d agree has virtually no relationship with nationality (if so, the Islamic people in Western China and Tibet should break off too since they’re not Han, and all the Middle Eastern countries should unite).

You might not realize this but you actually are stating my point for me: that the English word “Chinese” also refers to the culture (hua ren) and the ethnicity (han ren).

“However, if one turns their back on their entire ethnicity and culture because of politics, well, that’s their choice. The whole thing is pretty stupid as Taiwanese and Chinese are NOT mutually exclusive. One can be both.”

It’s really not stupid at all. As we both seem to agree, it’s an issue of the inadequacies of the English word “Chinese”, even though the language itself is one in which semantics do matter greatly. The English lexicon simply isn’t sufficient for parsing the subtleties involved, so we Taiwanese-Americans must draw a line in the sand and define the semantics as we would choose for our own community, much like black people (“African-American” is ok, “black” is ok, “Negro” is really iffy (even though it didn’t use to be), and “n****” is really not ok) did for theirs.

It might help you to think of it this way: to an extent, all Taiwanese are Chinese, as are many Singaporeans, Cambodians, Vietnamese, Thai, etc who are of Han descent. However, nobody calls ethnically Chinese Myanma 中國人 in Mandarin… they’re referred to as 緬甸人, or if one is really inclined, 華裔緬甸人. Furthermore, if this Myanma family then move to the US, they’re known simply as Myanma-American… Nobody’s gonna try to call them Chinese-American, even PRC folks. The situation is analogous here, except for the problematic political context, which makes it all the more necessary to call Taiwanese-Americans exactly that, instead of something as ambiguous and potentially misleading as “Chinese-American”.

To really hammer the point in… Taiwanese are, by and large, ethnically Chinese. I would argue that culturally, over the last 60 years, “Taiwanese” has already become distinct from “Chinese”, too, though I respect that that is a much grayer area. We are, however, certainly not 中國人. There *is* a distinct political difference, and since it’s redundant to refer to Taiwanese as Chinese if one is merely discussing ethnicity, the only meaningful label we can give Taiwanese-Americans is “Taiwanese-American”.

It appears that you can read Chinese, so I’m gonna link you to an article, written by a PRC journalist who’s done an extensive amount of research into the topic of the emergence of a distinct Taiwanese identity. It’s very long, but it explains very thoroughly the reasons why he agrees, having done extensive research and drawing on historical evidence, that there are valid reasons for referring to Taiwanese as Taiwanren and not Zhongguoren.

大陸人看台灣

廣州《新週刊》總主筆~肖鋒

http://ck101.com/viewthread.php?tid=2186697

If you can make it through the whole thing (I’ll admit freely it’s on the TL;DR side), I’ll be happy to engage further in this debate/conversation.
yyang

Taiwanese means someone from the island of Taiwan. It designates a nationality/origin, and the aboriginal of the island, not Han that went there after the civil war. You your self agrees Chinese can also mean 漢人.

That means unless the said person is a non-Han from Taiwan. Both Chinese and Taiwanese are correct. I have stated before, they are not mutually exclusive.

However, the way the convention is used, it is defined by racial or ethnic groups followed by nationality. African-American indicates an ethnic group. White Africans born and raised in South Africa that migrated to America are certainly not African Americans. Like wise, blacks from Caribbean that migrates to America can still be referred to as African American.

Taiwanese American would mean the person is an American citizen of Taiwan Aboriginal ethnicity. Which most people from Taiwan are not. Repeating it just make it sound like you are trying to deny you were漢人.

If Black Caribbean consistently refused to be acknowledged as African American but as Caribbean American, I’m sure it would be interpreted by majority of people they are trying to distant them-selves from their African Roots.
Elliott

@yyang Jesus.

Africa is not South Africa. Of freaking course a white South African raised in the states wouldn’t be an African American: he’d be a South African American, if that’s what he wants to go by. Apparently you need reminding that Africa is a continent, the way that Asia is and China isn’t. The correct counterpart to African American would be Asian American, which all Taiwanese Americans AND Chinese Americans are.

Plus, the idea that calling oneself Taiwanese American sounds like one is denying their Han heritage is absolutely ridiculous. Apparently you completely skipped over my previous response in which I raised the example of Han people living in Myanmar. If you’re not gonna read my responses, I’m not gonna write any more. I thought you’d be open-minded enough to maybe read that article I linked, but at the very least have enough respect to finish reading my firkin responses but I guess that’s too damn much to ask of you, since you apparently already know everything there is to know in this world. Congratulations.

Oh btw, did I mention, Africa is distinct from South Africa? Well it is.
Elliott

@yyang Y’know what, lemme take the South Africa thing one step further since it’s absolutely perfect. White South Africans are ethnically Dutch, but when was the last time you heard anybody refer to them as being actually Dutch, in any conversation that isn’t directly about ethnicity?
Elliott

@yyang I said I was gonna stop, but I can’t… this is too much fun, and I’ve some time to kill.

“Taiwanese means someone from the island of Taiwan. It designates a nationality/origin, and the aboriginal of the island, not Han that went there after the civil war.”

We freaking ARE from Taiwan, LMAO. Most Han people on that island have lived there for centuries. Even the ones that went after the war, it doesn’t matter… we still live and hail from that freakin island! Just cuz our “ancestors” weren’t from that island doesn’t mean we can’t call it our home when it IS.

Hey, your ancestors probably came from Africa, where all homo sapiens probably first evolved. I guess that must mean you’re African! And so am I! Wow! We’re like, practically family! Awesome!

And FYI, Jamaican Americans refer to themselves as exactly that, Jamaican Americans. When referred to as African Americans, it’s an acknowledgement that their forefathers came from the CONTINENT of Africa, must as Taiwanese Americans come from the CONTINENT of Asia. Frikkin’ duh. But if the ancestor of a Jamaican American actually came from what would be known as Ghana today, and you called him a Sudanese American, you’d be dead wrong. Frikkin’ duh x2.
yyang

@Elliott @yyang

“Plus, the idea that calling oneself Taiwanese American sounds like one is denying their Han heritage is absolutely ridiculous. Apparently you completely skipped over my previous response in which I raised the example of Han people living in Myanmar”

Never met any Han from Burma , but I have met Malaysian and Vietnamese Chinese, mostly Malaysian. They often refer to as Malaysian, Chinese, Malaysian Chinese, or Chinese Canadian from Malaysia, but no one has ever insisted on sticking solely with Malaysian and completely rejects the word Chinese.

“We freaking ARE from Taiwan, LMAO. Most Han people on that island have lived there for centuries. Even the ones that went after the war, it doesn’t matter… we still live and hail from that freakin island! Just cuz our “ancestors” weren’t from that island doesn’t mean we can’t call it our home when it IS.”

And my original point has always been both Taiwanese and Chinese are correct, it is not mutually exclusive. It is when one tries to specifically try to completely deny the other. Again, consistently stating you are “Taiwanese” (ie, person from Taiwan or a Taiwan Aboriginal) and NOT Chinese (ie, of Chinese ethnicity) is pretty clearly interpreted as rejecting anything to do with word Chinese, whether it means a citizen of China, a Hanren, or Huaren.

“White South Africans are ethnically Dutch, but when was the last time you heard anybody refer to them as being actually Dutch, in any conversation that isn’t directly about ethnicity?”

Again, if a white South African is actually Dutch in ethnicity, I don’t see them get offend if I said they are also Dutch, even if it is not commonly referred to that one, which seems to offend your sensibility if I call you a Chinese.
Elliott

@yyang No. You don’t get to change the argument at this point.

The issue here has never been about “Taiwanese” vs “Chinese”. The argument here in this discussion has always been about “Taiwanese-American” vs “Chinese-American”. Way to go, reframing the *entire freaking conversation* when it conveniently suits you.

It’s ok to be wrong, y’know… I have so much more respect for those who aren’t too proud to admit when they are just. simply. wrong.
yyang

@Elliott

In my first post I clearly stated my opinion concerning Taiwanese vs Chinese thing.

“The whole thing is pretty stupid as Taiwanese and Chinese are NOT mutually exclusive. One can be both.”

And to build up on that, I have stated my opinion on the “Taiwanese NOT Chinese” crowd. Yes, Chinese can mean someone from PRC, it also means Hanren, Huaren, or someone of the Chinese culture.
Elliott

@yyang Yeah, and as I first replied to you, I agree that Taiwanese and Chinese are not mutually exclusive. But then you go on to state stupid shit like

“Taiwanese American would mean the person is an American citizen of Taiwan Aboriginal ethnicity. Which most people from Taiwan are not. Repeating it just make it sound like you are trying to deny you were漢人.”

and

“Taiwanese means someone from the island of Taiwan. It designates a nationality/origin, and the aboriginal of the island”

Both statements are just fucking retarded. The large majority of Han people in Taiwan have been living there longer than the United States itself has even been a country. By your logic, only American Indians then should be known as “Americans”. Again, fucking retarded.
scareyourself

Can someone please put the correct link to my blog: http://www.scareyourselfeveryday.com/ thanks – Greg
http://www.8asians.com/author/akrypti/ akrypti

And this is coming from someone who is a diehard pro-independence activist: Why did your comment need to be prefaced with “you’re an idiot”?
yyang

@Elliott

For the first statement, I was probably not very clear, but I’m explicitly referring to the ones screaming I’m “Taiwanese American and not Chinese American”. The ones who are trying to make it seem like Taiwanese American and Chinese American are not the same ethnicity. Which you have to agree can only be interpreted they are trying to deny they are Han, or have any relation with the Mainland.

For the second statement, please re-read it again, let me help you by substituting it with word “Canadian”.

Canadian means someone from the country of Canada. It designates a nationality/origin, and the aboriginal of the country.

It means Canadian aboriginals are Canadians, so is anyone else with that nationality/orgin.

Again, like I said, the entire argument is pointless; I think JLin himself said the best, Chinese with Taiwanese root. Unfortunately the “Taiwanese NOT CHINESE” crowd screams the loudest, and that is frankly what’s creating the huge backlash.
Elliott

@yyang OK, let me address the crux of your argument head-on, that Chinese somehow equals or at least implies Han.

Chinese does NOT mean Han. Not even close. In fact, while there is correlation, there is absolutely no causal or direct relationship between being Chinese and being Han. The fact that the two words are currently used interchangeably in the English lexicon is the exact issue we’re trying to deal with, the usage in language that we’re trying to change.

Chinese means zhongguoren. Han means Han. You can have Chinese who aren’t Han, and you can have Han who aren’t Chinese. If someone from the PRC of Uyghur or Mongolian descent comes to the States, are you gonna be the one that breaks his heart by telling him that he’s not Chinese, because he’s not Han? Cuz I won’t. He’s Chinese, but not Han. I’m Han, but not Chinese.

To reiterate: the current lexicon, in which Han and Chinese are used interchangeably, is wrong and needs updating. Chinese can refer to a nationality or a culture, but NOT an ethnicity. Taiwanese are neither culturally, nor nationally, Chinese.
Elliott

@yyang

OK, let me address the crux of your argument head-on, that Chinese somehow equals or at least implies Han.

Chinese does NOT mean Han. Not even close. In fact, while there is correlation, there is absolutely no causal or direct relationship between being Chinese and being Han. The fact that the two words are currently used interchangeably in the English lexicon is the exact issue we’re trying to deal with, the usage in language that we’re trying to change.

Chinese means zhongguoren. Han means Han. You can have Chinese who aren’t Han, and you can have Han who aren’t Chinese. If someone from the PRC of Uyghur or Mongolian descent comes to the States, are you gonna be the one that breaks his heart by telling him that he’s not Chinese, because he’s not Han? Cuz I won’t. He’s Chinese, but not Han. Folks in Taiwan may be Han, but they’re not Chinese.

To reiterate: the current lexicon, in which Han and Chinese are used interchangeably, is wrong and needs updating. Chinese can refer to a nationality or a culture, but NOT an ethnicity. Taiwanese are neither culturally, nor politically, Chinese.

Seriously, just read the article I linked to earlier. These statements I’m making aren’t arbitrary: there’s historical evidence that shows how the Taiwanese identity evolved into a separate thing from the Chinese identity. Just read the fucking article, it’s got all the answers. Unless… your Chinese isn’t good enough.
yyang

@Elliott

Then you should go and inform all English speaking Chinese Diaspora that they should stop calling themselves Chinese as well.

In fact, I guess all the second generation Chinese everywhere (the ones whose parents came from Mainland) should also stop calling themselves that since 1. They are citizen of their host country, 2. They are culturally merged with their host country.

Sorry you can internalize it as much as you want. Until that is changed in the dictionary, there is only one way people will interpret “Taiwanese not Chinese”. You are not Chinese, not culturally, and not ethnically. And like I said, it is your choice if you wish to turn you back on your root.
Elliott

@yyang There IS no Chinese ethnicity. Period. Not unless you guys wanna liberate all of Western China.
moye

@yyang @Elliott Why don’t you two just hug it out and call it a night?
http://www.8asians.com/author/akrypti/ akrypti

Yang: Han does not mean Chinese. Han is one ethnic group (albeit a ginormous one) originating from mainland China. Han and dozens upon dozens of others, such as Miao, Mongol, Ugyhur, etc. Han doesn’t even mean Taiwanese. There are other ethnic groups in addition to Han populating Taiwan.

My ancestors may have come from mainland China…over 512 years ago… but today, 512 years of living in Taiwan, they’re definitively Taiwanese. Not Chinese. 512 years of separation from the mainland means, at the very least, development of a clearly distinct culture.

“The ones who are trying to make it seem like Taiwanese American and Chinese American are not the same ethnicity.”

No. Clarifying that I’m Taiwanese American and not Chinese American is about distinguishing point of origin. And determining what your point of origin is would be a personal matter, one not for YOU to decide for others.
yyang

@akrypti

“No. Clarifying that I’m Taiwanese American and not Chinese American is about distinguishing point of origin. And determining what your point of origin is would be a personal matter, one not for YOU to decide for others.”

You are absolutely right, it is not for anyone else but yourself to decide that. And Never once did I say it is for me to decide. I have stated so many times that if one wishes to distant themselves from China and no longer consider themselves to be Chinese (for political reasons or other reasons), it is obviously their choice.

In the same vein, and getting back to the whole Jeremy Lin thing, it is not for you to say someone else is not Chinese but Taiwanese. And the video posted shows Jeremy Lin clearly stated that he’s Chinese and proud of being from Taiwan. So why can’t the “Taiwanese not Chinese” crowd just leave it at that?

8 Asians