An epidemic of “Linfluenza” is sweeping Taiwan, said Joe Doufu in the Taipei Times. Not only sport fans, but everyone in this country is delighted by the sudden rise of Taiwanese-American basketball sensation Jeremy Lin. “Linmania is spreading across Taiwan faster than a busload of Chinese tourists.” Kids are cutting their hair like his. Factories are churning out Knicks jerseys and jackets that say Lin 17. Travel agents are already putting together Lin tours to New York, complete with tickets to Knicks games. Even the politicians have succumbed. President Ma Ying-jeou has held up Lin as “a shining example of teamwork that his cabinet should do its best to follow.”
It’s not just Taiwan—China claims Lin, too, said Amber Wang, also in the Times. He is already as well known there as Yao Ming, the Houston Rocket who was China’s first international sports star. Lin’s maternal grandmother is from China, leading to “outlandish calls for him to represent China in the upcoming Olympics.” The Chinese national news service, Xinhua, ran a story emphasizing that Lin’s ancestors “hail from Zhejiang province,” but it conceded that he would have to renounce his U.S. citizenship in order to play for China. This attempt to usurp a Taiwanese hero rankles the Lins in Taiwan. “He is Taiwanese, a true Taiwanese, and some remarks that he is not are wrong,” says Lin’s paternal grandmother, who lives here. It’s certainly annoying that China is trying to claim him, said the Taipei Apple Daily in an editorial. Lin is not theirs. But then, he’s not ours, either. “We should not force him to identify himself as Taiwanese or Chinese. His nationality is American, and he is an American.”
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