Ecstatic Taiwanese claim Knicks' Lin as their own
By ANNIE HUANG, Associated Press
Thursday, February 16, 2012
(02-16) 07:00 PST TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) --
With only a handful of foreign embassies, and a political leadership forced into international invisibility, it's not surprising that the 23 million people of Taiwan feel their island home doesn't always get the respect it deserves.
Perhaps that's why they're now embracing emerging New York Knicks star Jeremy Lin as one of their own, reveling in his basketball exploits with a passion rare for a place better known for its flat screen TVs and computer chips.
Lin was born and raised in the United States, and his maternal grandmother comes from China, but his parents spent their formative years in Taiwan, and that's enough for people here to see him as a true-blue son of the island.
The Harvard graduate's remarkably rapid rise from NBA obscurity to stardom appeals to the Taiwanese as embodying the virtues they say propelled their island from agricultural backwater to high-tech powerhouse: hard work, devotion to family and modesty.
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2012/02/16/international/i002514S26.DTL
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