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Jeremy Lin, the New York Knicks wunderkind point guard, has soared to the top of the sports world with his dazzling play. Lin has almost singlehandedly shattered a number of stereotypes – especially about Asian-Americans and Ivy League athletes.
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“Linsanity” has become a cultural phenomenon that has stretched from Manhattan to Beijing -- the NBA has never seen anything quite like it.
One of the many interesting facets to Lin’s extraordinary story of course has to do with his ethnicity and nationality. Lin was born in the United States to parents who emigrated from Taiwan. He is also a devout Christian, which adds to his huge appeal.
However, mainland China also “claims” Lin as one of their own -- indeed, Lin may soon supplant the recently retired Yao Ming as the most popular basketball player in the Middle Kingdom.
Therein lies an interesting quandary – Lin is an all-American lad who probably only cares about his family, faith and basketball.
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But 10,000 miles away, Taiwan and China are engaged in a kind of “metaphysical battle” for Lin’s identity.
China has long regarded the island of Taiwan as a breakaway province and has sometimes threatened to take it over by military force. Taiwan, although its people are overwhelmingly of Han Chinese descent, generally resent any intrusions by the Mainlanders and is committed to remaining a distinct and separate entity.
International Business Times spoke with two experts on China and Taiwan to discuss the Jeremy Lin phenomenon and how it relates to East Asian political issues.
Dr. George Wei Tsai is a political scientist at the Chinese Culture University in the Republic of China (Taiwan).
Dr. Melissa J. Brown is a Frieda L. Miller Fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass,; and also the author of Is Taiwan Chinese? The Impact of Culture, Power, and Migration on Changing Identities (University of California Press, 2004).
IB TIMES: Jeremy Lin is being hailed by both China and Taiwan. Why would some Taiwanese resent Beijing’s “claim” on the NBA’s newest star?
TSAI: This is due largely to deep-rooted hatred and suspicions, which were caused by the anti-Communist education of the past in Taiwan; as well as by China's efforts to block and isolate Taiwan from participating in international activities in recent years.
Some people here in Taiwan hate seeing Beijing trying to “steal” Taiwan's fame. Another factor is the advocacy of Taiwanese independence.
BROWN: Because it's part of Beijing's claim that Taiwan is part of China, ignoring its de facto status as separate country (separate government, currency, etc).
IB TIMES: Demographically, Taiwan’s population is overwhelmingly Han Chinese. But do they make a strong distinction between Taiwanese and Mainland Chinese?
TSAI: There are some differences between our two sides. Taiwan has had some touches of Japanese and American influences -- we are more internationalized in a sense. However, we are still mainly Han Chinese and we have successfully preserved some of the good qualities of Chinese culture and traditions here, which we feel very proud of. In addition, over the last 50 years Taiwan did not suffer from political upheavals.
BROWN: Very roughly, throughout the world, including in Taiwan and China, there are clear distinctions in terms of visas for citizens of Taiwan (ROC) and The Peoples’ Republic of China (PRC).
But there is an established ideology, dating back to 1949-50 and bought into by the U.S., the United Nations and many other international bodies that Taiwan is "supposed" to be part of China.
Within Taiwan itself, they make a very clear difference between their own citizens and PRC citizens. One complication arises because among ROC citizens, there is a group of Han called "Mainlanders" which refers to those who came to Taiwan in the 1940s and 1950s along with Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalist regime.
At that time, "Taiwanese" referred to the Han people whose ancestors went to Taiwan before Taiwan was a Japanese colony (1895-1945). Chiang's Kuomintang (KMT) ruled Taiwan under martial law from 1947 to 1987, and they insisted Taiwan was Chinese as were all its citizens.
Anyone who supported democratic rule for Taiwan -- or who advocated for changing the name of the country to the Republic of Taiwan -- was imprisoned (including Chen shui-bian, who would serve as Taiwan’s president from 2000-2008).
Once martial law was lifted, many expressed these views and declared themselves Taiwanese. Today, some grandchildren of Taiwan Mainlanders consider themselves Taiwanese (as a national identity). But even many Mainlanders who think of themselves as Chinese view Taiwan as very distinct from the PRC.
IB TIMES: When did the great waves of immigration from Mainland China to Taiwan occur? Has there been much migration since the 1949 Communist revolution in China?
TSAI: The first wave was during the Qing Dynasty a few hundred years ago and the other wave was in 1949.
After 1988 when Taiwan opened up to the other side, there were some mixed marriages and as such many Taiwanese businessmen are now living and working on both sides.
There are at least 300,000 Mainland Chinese married to people in Taiwan and over 1-million Taiwanese residing in China now.
BROWN: The Japanese colonial government of Taiwan did not allow immigration from China -- Taiwan was part of the Japanese empire from 1895-1945. About 200,000 Taiwanese men fought or served as “coolie” labor in the Japanese Imperial army during the Second World War.
After 1949, there was very little migration between Taiwan and China.
Even sending mail between the two was forbidden until the 1980s.
Only recently, in the last 10 to 15 years, has there been “marital migration,” i.e., Taiwanese men marrying women from the PRC and bringing them back to Taiwan.
