News2-Lin-C.in US(+notes).docVIP

News 2 Sporting heroes Adopted被收养的 son Jeremy Lin’s basketballing fame crosses the Pacific Ocean Feb 25th 2012 | BEIJING | from the print edition Lin’s the man CHINESE sports fans had been looking for a new hero to call their own. Their top football league was upended颠倒/颠覆 in the past two years by a vast match-fixing比赛贿赂 scandal (39 players, referees裁判, owners and officials were recently sentenced to jail for their part in it). Chinese basketball had seen no heir继承者 to Yao Ming as international standard-bearer. Then along came 来了Jeremy Lin, a Taiwanese-American美籍台湾人phenomenon人才 who has been the story of the season赛季 in the National Basketball Association (NBA). American basketball is hugely popular in China, as are successful foreigners of Chinese origin. Mr Lin ticked打勾 both boxes, as he set about开始 amassing积聚 an awful lot of points on the court. On February 20th Chinese time, Mr Lin’s team, the New York Knicks, played a game against reigning卫冕 NBA champions, the Dallas Mavericks. The game appeared to pitch投出 two very different players against对抗 each other: Mr Lin against the once-hyped曾经被大肆宣传的Chinese-born-and-trained Yi Jianlian of the Mavericks. Mr Yi, it had been hoped, would succeed继承 Mr Yao as a Chinese star in the NBA. Mr Lin’s popularity in China exposes显露 a number of curiosities好奇心 about the country’s attitude to sport. Most obvious is that he is an American who is proud of his family’s roots in Taiwan, an island that China claims—and a fact that complicates使…复杂化 China’s efforts to claim称…是自己的 Mr Lin (and they have tried). But there are three other reasons Mr Lin’s stardom明星身份 could fluster使…慌 the authorities. First, he is openly公开地 Christian基督教徒, and the Communist Party is wary警惕的 of the deeply religious. Second, he is not a big centre中锋 or forward前锋, the varietals品种 which are the chief主要的 mainland大陆 Chinese export出口物/人 to the NBA, including the Mavericks’ Mr Yi (who stands at 7ft, or 2.13m tall). And third, in a sporting sense he emerged from relative o