MCLC: Lin-mania in Taiwan

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: kirk (denton.2 at osu.edu)
Subject: Lin-mania in Taiwan
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Source: NYT (2/15/12):
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/16/sports/basketball/jeremy-lins-grandmother
-watches-along-with-taiwan.html

An Odd Game a Grandmother Can Appreciate
By KEITH BRADSHER 

TAIPEI, Taiwan ‹ Long before Jeremy Lin began winning games in spectacular
style for the Knicks, his Taiwanese grandmother, Lin Chu A Muen, came to
the United States to look after him as a young child while his parents
worked. She diapered and fed him and, as he grew up, cooked big batches of
fried rice with dried turnips and egg, a Taiwanese favorite.

On Wednesday night, Lin Chu, now 85, went to a sports restaurant to watch
a delayed broadcast of her grandson¹s latest heroics, a last-second shot
against the Toronto Raptors that propelled the Knicks to their sixth
straight victory since he emerged out of nowhere and took charge of the
team.

Lin Chu¹s face lighted up every time her grandson came on the screen. But
each time he fell or was knocked down or elbowed by the Raptors, who
played a pugnacious, battering defense against him, her face froze.

³I don¹t know too much about basketball, but this is not how it should be
done ‹ why do they do it?² she said with dismay. ³I know nothing about
basketball. I only know when Jeremy puts the ball in the basket he has
done a good thing.²

Much of Taiwan has been watching Lin¹s extraordinary performance over the
last week and a half with almost as much emotion as Lin Chu and perhaps
with more knowledge of the sport. Newspapers and magazines have almost
monotonously similar front pages with photographs of Lin. Offices go quiet
each morning when Lin plays in night games on the other side of the world,
as workers try to follow the court action without being heard by their
colleagues.

Lin Chi Chung, Jeremy Lin¹s 63-year-old uncle, said he kept working at his
job as a warehouse manager Wednesday morning as the Knicks-Raptors game
was being played, knowing he would watch it that night. But almost none of
the other 60 people at the warehouse showed the same discipline.

³All the senior managers at my office and all the sales managers
immediately updated me ‹ they all had iPads they were watching,² he said.

Politicians are also paying attention. Taiwan¹s democracy is famously
fractious, not just between the ruling Nationalist Party and the
opposition Democratic Progressive Party, but among factions within each
group. But on Lin, they are united. And Taiwan¹s president, Ma Ying-jeou,
caused some amusement this week by wishing that his cabinet showed the
same team spirit as Lin did.

Lin Chu said her grandson had always been a mild-mannered boy who shared
his possessions with others, and indeed Lin is drawing plaudits for doing
exactly what a smart, and poised, point guard should ‹ passing the ball to
teammates when they are in a position to score.

While the Taiwanese news media have breathlessly suggested that Lin Chu
taught basketball to her grandson, she emphatically denied this.

³My son, when he came home from work, would always take the kids to play
basketball,² she said. ³He took Jeremy to the basketball courts as soon as
he could walk.²

The hunger of the Taiwanese news media for every detail of Jeremy Lin¹s
life has proved a problem for his grandmother and uncle, who live
together. So many reporters and photographers camped outside their home in
the Taipei suburbs that they briefly fled last weekend to their ancestral
village, Beidou, in south-central Taiwan, only to be pursued there by
reporters.

The two agreed to an interview Wednesday night in Taipei only after taking
elaborate precautions to avoid paparazzi. This subterfuge included meeting
at a cake shop in a nearly deserted neighborhood and then driving a
circuitous route in the uncle¹s car while watching to see if anyone was
following. No one was, and they then proceeded to dinner and the ballgame
at the Brass Monkey sports restaurant.

While in the car, Lin¹s 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. ³For sure, they are Taiwanese,² Lin
Chi Chung said. ³I spoke to Jeremy Lin¹s father, who is my younger
brother, and he said, ŒMake sure you point this out.¹ ²

Both of Jeremy Lin¹s parents were born in Taiwan and retain dual
citizenship in Taiwan and the United States, Lin Chi Chung said. Jeremy
Lin was born in California and has American citizenship but has been
offered dual citizenship in Taiwan as well by the foreign ministry here,
his uncle added.

Lin Chi Chung said he and Jeremy Lin¹s father were eighth-generation
descendants of immigrants from Fujian province in southeastern China who
moved to Taiwan in 1707. They were part of a large wave of Fujian
migration from which most of Taiwan¹s current residents are descended, and
these descendants tend to identify themselves as Taiwanese.

A senior official of Zhejiang province in east-central Chinasuggested over
the weekend that Jeremy Lin¹s ancestral home was there because his
maternal grandmother grew up in the province before moving to southernmost
Taiwan in the late 1940s, at the end of China¹s civil war.

A devout Christian, she was married for a while to a Taiwanese Christian
pastor, gave birth to Jeremy Lin¹s mother and raised her, and later moved
to the United States.

While acknowledging that the maternal grandmother is still fond of
mainland China, where she sponsors a scholarship at her hometown¹s high
school, Lin Chi Chung said that mainland Chinese culture and Taiwanese
culture both dictate that Jeremy Lin¹s identity should be determined by
his father¹s side of the family.

³We are a male-dominated society, so while I know there are relatives on
the mother¹s side on the mainland, you should go by the father¹s side, and
that is Taiwanese,² he said.

Lin Chu remained quiet for the most part during the discussion of her
grandson¹s identity, preferring to discuss his basketball abilities. She
said that she was struggling to understand her grandson¹s basketball games
because while Lin¹s father has been sending her videos of the games for
years, she has not tried to watch them until the past few weeks.

³My grandson would say, ŒDid you see the films?¹ and I hadn¹t, but I would
tell him I did,² she said.

Jeremy Lin¹s grandmother and uncle have agreed that they will only watch
delayed broadcasts of Jeremy Lin¹s games, after she has been told the
outcome. The reason, Lin Chu said, was simple: she needs to limit stress.

Lin Chu watches her diet. She ordered a large salad at the sports
restaurant while watching the game, but ate very little of it.

When Lin scored the final 6 points of the game to give the Knicks a 90-87
victory, the restaurant patrons threw up their arms in exultant cheers.
Lin Chu stayed seated but grinned broadly, her eyes sparkling.

Then she and her eldest son walked quietly to the restaurant door, cast a
wary eye for paparazzi and headed for their car and the half-hour drive
home. Ahead were more games this week featuring her grandson, and,
perhaps, more chances to celebrate.