“Earthlings can no longer stop Jeremy Lin!” tweeted @XC_辰 on Sina Weibo, China’s Twitter. No kidding. 
The Linsanity rolls on. On St. Va”Lin”tine’s Day, the sensational Jeremy Lin edged out the sixth (!) consecutive win for the New York Knicks by shooting a perfect three-pointer with 0.5 second left on the buzzer in the game against the Toronto Raptors. Has the Lingend no mercy on anyone’s blood pressure? (OK, we will stop).
Jeremy Shu-How Lin, or 林书豪 in Chinese, has a verified account @JeremyLin林书豪 on Sina Weibo and over 1.1 million followers. The majority of Chinese netizens feels immensely proud and embraces Lin as their own. “Completely replaced Yao Ming in my books,” tweeted @东莞球迷黎一凡. “Found the feeling I once had for Jordan! Great pride for the Chinese!” wrote SCOCO哮天芝麻麻麻.
However, some have noted that Lin is an ABC, or American-born Chinese. Unlike former NBA star Yao Ming, who was born and raised in Shanghai (and seems to be spending a comfortable retirement there) Lin hails from Palo Alto, California. @口耐的我 tweeted, “He was born in America and got an American education; doesn’t even speak Chinese. Besides [the fact that] his parents are from Taiwan; what does he actually have to do with China?”
Wait, can Lin speak Chinese? Tea Leaf Nation is curious too. Now that Lin has smashed the stereotype that Asians can’t play hoops, can he smash the other stereotype: that ABCs don’t speak Chinese?
Well, earthlings, he can. In this interview conducted in China sometime in the summer of 2011, Lin spoke very good Mandarin with a Taiwanese accent, but no discernible American accent. In another interview, he used Mandarin to count his favorite Taiwanese food – scallion pancake, turnip cake, crab pastry and pig blood cake (ick!).
Can Lin read or write Chinese? That’s not clear. In this promotional video for a Taiwanese basketball camp for children, which he taught in the summer of 2011, it was obvious that Lin was reading from a placard and struggled a bit. On Lin’s official Weibo account, his tweets are bilingual. Maybe a family member or a friend, or Google Translate, turns his tweets into Chinese but we would rather believe that Lincredible can do it all.
Bonus Section – Jeremy Lin on Harvard
Lin and his mother gave a 50-minute long interview to a Taiwanese talk show in the summer of 2011. Lin spoke in English while his mother spoke Chinese. When the interviewer expressed amazement that he can handle Harvard’s course load and play basketball, Lin let her in on the secret.
It’s not as bad as it sounds. Once you get into Harvard, they take care of you. The hard part is getting in. But basketball and getting recruited helped me get in, but once I got in, the teachers were very helpful, especially if you play sports. So sometimes if I need a tutor, something like that, they help me through it all.
And the kicker? Jeremy Lin didn’t even want to go to Harvard.
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