外國記者眼中的"林書豪熱":中國得了個"林瘋狂"

看外國記者眼中的“林書豪熱”，林書豪到底是中國人還是韓國人的帖子讓人抓狂，林書豪甚至引爆了中國的食品安全問題。因爲林書豪父母都不高，他卻能長那麼高，所以中國網友認爲，都是因爲中國食品吃得少才能長那麼高。看到外媒記者寫的談論中國的“爲林瘋狂”，令人驚歎，爲何林書豪就能引起這麼大規模的口水戰？

I was in the stands last night watching the Beijing Ducks of the China Basketball Association beat up on the Shanghai Sharks when I turned to a teen-ager in the row behind me and asked what he makes of the sudden rise of Jeremy Lin. Sudden rise? "We were talking about him last year," he said.

昨晚我正在臺上看籃協北京隊狂虐上海隊，我後排是一位十多歲模樣的年輕人，我轉過身去問他知不知道林書豪何以一夜間如此風靡。“一夜之間？”他說，“我們去年開始就在談論他了。”

Perhaps. Any athlete of Chinese descent who reaches the pros in America draws some attention in China, but nothing compared to the sensation that Lin has sparked on the mainland in the last two weeks. Never mind his two hundred thousand followers on Twitter; on the Chinese version, he already has three-quarters of a million. Last week, Lin rocketed to the number-one most searched item on Baidu, the Chinese search engine.

可以說只要是華裔的美國職業球員，或多或少在中國都有點兒知名度。但像林書豪這樣，過去短短兩星期內就在大陸引起如此轟動的恐怕還是頭一遭。不僅僅他推特（Twitter）上的粉絲暴增到20萬，微博上的粉絲更是達到了75萬。就在上週，“林書豪”成爲了百度搜索引擎的最熱門搜索項。

Lin Shuhao, as he's known here—Linsanity has been translated to linfengkuang—is drawing attention not only for the breakout performances that have endeared him to American fans, but for qualities of particular interest to the Chinese: his earning power, his bi-cultural roots, and his place in the complex dynamic of mainland China's relations with Taiwan. "You know his agent's phone is ringing off the hook," one Beijinger put it. With Yao Ming in retirement, Chinese fans (and N.B.A. marketers) are desperate for a new draw in China, and Lin has potential. He understands Mandarin, and speaks enough of it to answer some interview questions, though one joke making the rounds is that former Knicks point guard Stephon Marbury—who has spent the last two years in the Chinese league—might have better pronunciation. Most fans appear to have readily claimed Lin as Chinese, though some have taken note of the fact that he is American-born, with parents from the breakaway island of Taiwan. As one commentator put it: "Do Africans jump up to claim Kobe as one of their countrymen?"

林書豪，在美國人們都稱他Linsanity，譯爲中文即“林瘋狂”。眼下他可謂萬衆矚目——不僅賽場上的出色表現贏得了無數美國粉絲的心，而且他的一些有趣特質也強烈吸引着中國人球迷：他的吸金能力，雙重文化背景，以及夾在中國大陸和臺灣之間的複雜地位。“他經紀人的電話該被打爆了”，一個北京人這麼對我說。隨着姚明的退役，中國球迷（和NBA的商業經營者們）都急切的盼望着一顆冉冉新星來開創新局面，而這顆新星，很可能就是林書豪。林書豪在提起尼克斯隊前控球后衛斯蒂芬·馬布裏——他近兩年都在中國籃球隊打球——的時候發音有點兒奇怪，使之一時間成爲廣爲流傳的笑話，但事實上，他的普通話已經足夠應對各種採訪了。雖也有人提及他在生於美國，且父母都來自臺灣的這一背景，但是大多數中國球迷都已自動將他視如己出。一位評論員笑道：“會不會有一天非洲人也跑出來說科比是他們的同胞？”。

Max Klein, a former researcher for the Letter from China, and now chief basketball correspondent, says local fans are still trying to make sense of Lin's abrupt success. On the Chinese basketball blogs, they're comparing him to "a trader laid off from a 'second-tier' firm"—Golden State—"who lands a janitorial position at Goldman Sachs, only to somehow win millions in fees for the firm within the first four days. A strategic pick-up for the Knicks, or did they hire their golden boy by happenstance?" Other Chinese fans have taken the opportunity to make a political observation: a photo of Lin towering over his parents touched off an endless string of theories about his height, including "that his stature is related to a lack of food [quality] scandals" in America, according to Charlie Melvoin, who tracked the trend at Baidu.

馬克思·克萊因（Max Klein）是《中國來鴻》欄目組的前任調查員，現任首席籃球記者。他說，林書豪突然地成功仍在中國球迷中被熱烈探討着。在中國的一個籃球博客上，有人說他“被一個二流球隊（金州勇士隊）解聘，成了明星球隊的小角色，卻在短短四天內進賬上百萬。這究竟是尼克斯隊英明的抉擇呢，還是一時的偶然？” 還有一些粉絲的評論則帶有政治色彩，一張林書豪比父母高一截的合照引得衆人吐槽不斷，有人說是因爲“長在美國，中國食物吃得少才長那麼高。” （消息來自查理·梅爾利（Charlie Melvoin））