Linmania

A lot of Asian-Americans have gotten on the bandwagon for Jeremy Lin, posting their support on Facebook through status updates and the like. Not all of them are Chinese/Taiwanese[-Americans], either. Will he more popular than Yao Ming in that subset of the population because of his American birth? He seems to be a better basketball player, though I am only hazarding a guess since I read that Yao Ming didn't live up to expectations while Jeremy Lin has met or surpassed them so far.

So these Asian-Americans see him as one of their own, yearning for Asian-Americans to be represented among the stars [or the "best"] and the like. Do they believe that this is the way for their "integration" into American society to be visible, satisfying their group aspirations to contribute in all spheres and the desire for recognition by non-Asian-Americans of their achievements? In certain areas where Asian-Americans live in considerable number (the megapoleis of California, Boston, NYC, where else?) some Asian-Americans may have white friends. But that integration is rather illusory in the rest of the United States, happening only via the images produced by the MSM.

It may understandable that Asian-Americans support Lin simply because he is an Asian-American who is playing basketball well. But is that sort of "genetic affinity" a sufficient reason for this manifestation of Azn pride? They may be fans of other players as well, but Jeremy Lin is "special." Professional basketball as an important socio-political sphere? I can't relate to that sort of emotion.

Well, I'll save airing my ire against most Asian-American politicians later.

Jeremy Lin Taking the NBA by Storm
Jeremy Lin Inspires Basketball Mania

*Edit* Turns out the catch word is "Linsanity."