Let me add my voice to the chorus: Linsanity is Lintastic! By now, everyone knows Jeremy Lin and his marvelous emergence in the NBA.   Not only in the US, but in China as well, where he seems to be overshadowing the retired Yao Ming as a national basketball champion. 

And here's one of the interesting things about all this: rather like Gary Locke, Lin is an American who is creating a new symbol of Chinese cultural accomplishment.  And that, I think, is not good news for the culture warriors in China desperately in search of home-grown products that will boost the PRC's "soft power" abroad.

Let me put out a quick disclaimer: I personally am a cultural anti-nationalist in the sense that I recognize that cultural production and significance cannot be contained within national boundaries or categories.  Some Americans might comfortably identify with cultural products produced elsewhere – and that's fine.  Some Chinese might comfortably identify with cultural products produced elsewhere – and that's fine, too.  Nationalists – American or Chinese – who are hell-bent on denouncing cultural exchange and inter-mingling are not only unrealistic (cultures have always and everywhere flowed together) but they are impoverished in their imaginations….

That said, to Chinese nationalists who worry about "…international hostile forces [that] are intensifying the strategic plot of Westernizing and dividing China…" (I'm looking at you Hu Jintao), Jeremy Lin is a potential problem.  He is, after all, an American.  As some have noted, his story seems paradigmatic of the "American dream."  He is obviously proud of his Chinese-Taiwanese heritage, but his life has been shaped by his Chinese-Taiwanese-American context and experience.  The problem, then, for Chinese nationalists who would like to appropriate the Lin narrative as a symbol of some sort of purely Chinese cultural accomplishment is the impossibility of disaggregating the reality of his Chinese-Taiwanese-American-ness. 

This has not yet happened yet, as far as I know.  Lin has been embraced by the Chinese public but the cultural commissars, who pressed back against Gary Locke's popularity, have yet to weigh in on the rise of Lin.  Though I did notice this headline from China Daily: "Lin's good, but not as good as Yao – NBA boss."  Of course, no one would contend, at this point, that Lin's career, which is all but two weeks old, comes close to Yao's.  But why does this even need to be said now?

It might be that there is already an anxiety stirring in the minds of Chinese nationalists.  Here is yet another cultural sensation, drawing the adulation of Chinese youth, that is produced in the US.  It's another Kung Fu Panda.  The Lin story plays more to a US "soft power" narrative than a PRC one.   Indeed, Lin might be more dangerous than Lady Gaga (are her songs still banned?).  He is, at once "Chinese" but not, for PRC nationalist purposes, sufficiently "Chinese."

And things might be really interesting if cross-Strait politics enter the equation.  Will someone in the PRC require him to de-emphasize his Taiwanese-ness?  Will he play more to a KMT or DPP Taiwan narrative?  That could get a bit dicey…

Let me be clear: personally, I think Lin should be free to identify himself as he wants and to do what he wants, without social and cultural baggage.  But that is not the way cultural politics works, especially when nationalists get involved.  If Lin wants to play for a Chinese or Taiwanese national team in international competition, as has been suggested, that's fine with me.  If he plays on a US team, that's good, too.  Whatever.  I sense, however, that these issues, and the continuing question of his popularity and identity within the PRC will create some rather perilous politics for him in the not-too-distant future….

In the meantime: Go Knicks! Linsanity!…

UPDATE: Well, that didn't take long:

Is 'Linsanity' Driving the Chinese Government Crazy?

China, Taiwan Both Lay Claim to Jeremy Lin