Throughout his recent career success, Lin has remained diplomatic in an attempt to avoid controversy by emphasizing both his Taiwanese and Chinese heritage. China and Taiwan are extremely interwoven cultures with the majority of the Taiwanese population ethnically Chinese and China's political claim over Taiwan. This intimate relationship leads to a confusing and complex creation of various in-groups and out-groups throughout both Taiwan and the mainland of China. While Lin was born in the U.S., his father's family has been in Taiwan for several generations and his great grandmother emigrated to the U.S. from Zhejiang, China during the Chinese civil war from 1927-1950. As one could argue, Lin through his direct and continuous lineage in Taiwan belongs solely to the Taiwanese ethnic in-group. In a Wall Street Journal interview in February Lin stated, "I love going to Taiwan and I'm going to be there every summer, so to all the Taiwanese fans I can't wait to them all again this summer." From this statement and others, it is clear that Lin closely identifies with Taiwan. However, an individual's social identification is usually not limited to one group, and more commonly consists of multiple groups spanning across ethnic, cultural, and social genres. Therefore, placing Lin in either the Taiwanese or Chinese in-group is ultimately naive. This new basketball superstar has the ability to identify and support multiple groups nationally and internationally. One cannot obviously forget his strong, and probably most dominant, identification with America (being American-born, a childhood resident of San Francisco Bay Area, a graduate of Massachusetts's Harvard, a former California Golden State Warrior, a New York Knick's basketball player, and so one and so forth).
The true issue, however, arises in China and Taiwan's individual claims of Lin as solely their own. Since Lin's quick success in February, every major newspaper in Taiwan has placed Lin on the front page and the local malls have taken to broadcasting Knicks games in public spaces. Lin has become quickly ingrained within Taiwanese society, causing the creation of new Taiwanese terms to support the Lin frenzy as well as various industries equating Lin's game-winning shot to industry trends. Additionally, the mainland of China has jumped on the bandwagon, assimilating Lin as one of their own. Gaining over a million fans on the Chinese social network site Weibo, Lin has also been extensively covered on Chinese television stations (although, the occasional censorships referencing Lin's religious preferences should not be forgotten). These claims of Lin belonging to both Taiwan and China groups should ideally function advantageously with the potential of Lin to become an encompassing icon for Asia, which could ultimately eliminate the geopolitical tensions between countries, specifically the island of Taiwan and the mainland of China. However, this potential has yet to develop. Angry debates just rally back and forth between Taiwan and China of who Lin represents. Lin's injury and any other possible downfalls of this extraordinary athlete could cause a strong ultimate attribution error with each cultural group blaming the other and its characteristics for Lin's demise, serving to only create further fissures within the tenuous relationship of China and Taiwan.
Jeremy Lin provides a real-world example of two prevalent media theories discussed throughout the semester. Lin and the Asian debates surrounding him enhance the relevance of these theories, highlighting specific factors that pertain to each element of social identity instances and ultimate attribution error. Lin, like many others, associates and assimilates into various social identity groups that uniquely pertain to his ancestry and cultural upbringing.
-Katharine James
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