The rise of New York
Knicks basketball player Jeremy Lin
has drawn fans as diverse as Harlem street ballers, late-night talk
show hosts and Sarah
Palin, but nowhere has his story been more deeply felt than within Asian
Americans.
In the Asian American community even third and fourth
generations must contend with being treated as perpetual foreigners. So it comes
as no surprise that they have embraced the big pop culture bang that created
"Linsanity" — a force that already has turned long-entrenched cultural
stereotypes on their heads and made the Ivy League-educated point guard the most
visible Asian American in the country, if not the world.
"[Lin is]
definitely a departure from the invisibility or the erasing of Asian
American-ness of Asian American players," said Kathleen Yep, a Pitzer College
professor of Asian American studies and author of "Outside the Paint: When
Basketball Ruled at the Chinese Playground." "There's a fascinating thing of
many people claiming Jeremy Lin ... as part of the American story."
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