An Ethnic Taiwanese?

Jeremy Lin was born and bred as an American. He acquired his basketball skill in the States, and he graduated from the top-notch Harvard in his own right. All of his stature gained so far had nothing to do with Taiwan. That made Taiwan media hesitate to bestow “The pride of Taiwan” on him again (partly because another “pride” Wang’s halo is diminishing). But the media now turned to another comfort by boasting that Lin is an ethnic Taiwanese, insinuating he is not an ethnic Chinese. Oh, feel so good; let this notion bring us cheer.

I don’t feel like arguing with anybody what is Lin’s ethnic origin. All I have to point out that people in the States would not care about where he is from, and would only refer him as a Chinese American or an Asian American when necessary, but not a Taiwanese American anyway. Because Taiwan is just a geographical area only, but not a country, or big enough to form a specific nation, so no one will recognize people in Taiwan belong to a particular race, except us, the insular islanders.

Incidentally, Lin now plays for Houston Rockets. Do you know why Rockets scrambled for him with that “ridiculous” price? It is mainly because they hoped Lin will help them continue to ply for huge business from Mainland China, which was previously brought by Yao Ming. Will the fans of Mainland crazy about Lin like they did for Yao? Certainly, for they would regard Lin as their fellow countryman though his parents are American citizens originally from Taiwan.