Chinese sports fans had been looking for a new hero to call their own. Their top football league was upended in the past two years by a vast match-fixing scandal (39 players, referees, owners and officials were recently sentenced to jail for their part in it). Chinese basketball had seen no heir to Yao Ming as international standard-bearer. Then along came Jeremy Lin, a Taiwanese-American phenomenon who has been the story of the season in the National Basketball Association (NBA). American basketball is hugely popular in China, as are successful foreigners of Chinese origin. Mr Lin ticked both boxes, as he set about amassing 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 NBA champions, the Dallas Mavericks. The game appeared to pitch two very different players against each other: Mr Lin against the once-hyped, Chinese-born-and-trained Yi Jianlian of the Mavericks. Mr Yi, it had been hoped, would succeed Mr Yao as a Chinese star in the NBA.
中国的体育爱好者一直希望能够拥有一个自己的体育英雄。过去两年，中国足坛黑幕被揭开（39名队员、裁判、俱乐部老板和官员入狱）；中国的篮球运动员也没有一个能够接替姚明成为新的代表国际水准的球员。不过，林书豪出现了，这位台湾裔的美籍运动员已经成为了美国篮球协会（NBA）新星。美国篮球在中国很受欢迎，同样，华裔的外籍运动员在中国也备受喜爱，林书豪正是一个完美人选，他在球场上成绩优秀。北京时间2月20日，林书豪所在的纽约尼克斯队对阵NBA王牌篮球队小牛队。在这场比赛中，两名球员成为了对手：林书豪对阵小牛队的中国球员易建联，后者一直被中国人寄予厚望，希望他能接替姚明的位置。

Mr Lin's popularity in China exposes a number of curiosities 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 China's efforts to claim Mr Lin (and they have tried). But there are three other reasons Mr Lin's stardom could fluster the authorities. First, he is openly Christian, and the Communist Party is wary of the deeply religious. Second, he is not a big centre or forward, the varietals which are the chief mainland Chinese export 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 obscurity, having been educated not in a hothouse American sports college but at Harvard, a prestigious but somewhat less sporty American university.
林书豪的经历是中国官方体育系统永远无法复制的。如果在中国，他很可能因为身高不够而不能够进入官方体育训练（林书豪身高1.91米）。林书豪的父母个子都不高，这会让评委们对林的身高潜力不看好。中国的体育系统看重身体指标，而不是更看重控球后卫（林书豪即是此角色）的反应能力和战术水平。

Mr Lin is everything that China's state sports system seems unable to produce. As a young boy, he might even have been denied entry into China's sports machine because of his modest height (he now stands at 6ft 3ins). One look at his parents, each of unremarkable stature, might have made evaluators sceptical. The Chinese machine excels at identifying and churning out physical specimens, rather than point guards (Mr Lin's position), who must be quick-witted, tactical maestros.
林书豪在中国的大热引发了我们就中方对体育事业持何观点的好奇。明显的一点是，林书豪是一个美国人，并且为自己的台湾籍贯感到骄傲。大陆与台湾的明暗关系让中方很难将林书豪纳入本国阵营（中方的确尝试过这样做）。面对林书豪的崛起，中方还有一个顾虑。首先，他是一个公开的基督教徒，而共产党是对宗教徒有所警觉的。第二，他与小牛队的易建联（身高2.13米）不一样，不是中国向NBA输出的球员。第三，就体育层面来说，林书豪的背景一般，他不是在体育表现不错的大学读书的，而是在哈佛大学，而哈佛在美国大学中体育运动的表现一直不怎么样。

Indeed, Mr Lin's parents might never have allowed him anywhere near the system. To put a child (usually an only child) into the Chinese sports system is to surrender his upbringing and education to a bureaucracy that demands sporting success at any cost. If a child were to be injured or fail to make the grade as an athlete, he would for nothing have been separated from his parents for lengthy stretches—and given up his chance at an all-round education, to boot. Although poorer parents from rural areas may welcome the chance for their child to attend a sports school, with the chance of upward mobility, most middle-class Chinese parents prefer to see their children focus on schooling and exams. So China almost certainly has its own Jeremy Lin, but there is no path for him to follow.
事实上，林书豪的父母也许永远不会让他参加官方的体育训练。让孩子（通常是独子）进入国家体育系统意味着将孩子的培养和教育全部交给政府，这个政府将获胜当作唯一的目标。如果孩子在训练期间受伤或者表现不理想，他所付出的代价（例如放弃受教育的机会、与长期父母分开参加训练等等）将得不到任何回报。虽然在农村的家境不好的地区，父母愿意利用这次机会把自己的孩子送入体校，因为这样有利于提高他们的社会地位。中国中等收入的家庭宁愿希望他们的孩子专注在学业和考试方面。中国也许有自己的林书豪，只不过他在当前制度下无法像林书豪那样成长。

China Central Television (CCTV), the national monopoly that usually broadcasts NBA games, has not joined in the "Linsanity", as American commentators have called the fever surrounding Mr Lin. CCTV told NetEase, a Chinese internet portal, that most Knicks games could not be shown owing to the time difference. But if the timing allows, it said, the games "will definitely be broadcast preferentially." It remains to be seen if that will happen.
中国中央电视台（CCTV）是中国的国有电视台，并经常播出NBA的比赛，但是这次他并没有加入到林来疯的行列。林来疯是美国评论者给林书豪热定的名字。央视告诉中国门户网站网易：由于时差关系，大多数尼克斯的比赛都没能在中国转播。但是如果时间允许的话，央视表示一定会选择性地播出。至于是否会播出，还要靠时间来证明。

Fortunately for Chinese sports fans, the internet provides a ready-made alternative to the state television system. Most of Mr Lin's games are being made available by live stream on the portal Sina.com. The game against Mr Yi's Mavericks was an exception, a mysterious black hole on Sina.com's NBA schedule. Frustrated Chinese fans had to go looking for dodgier streams elsewhere online. What they found was a closely fought game between the two teams, with Mr Lin again starring and leading the Knicks to victory 104-97. More poignantly, they saw their countryman, Mr Yi, remaining on the bench for the entire game, reduced to the role of spectator. As a glimpse of the Chinese sports system versus American soft power, it was perhaps deemed not fit for viewing.
中国球迷是幸运的，因特网成为了电视频道之外的首选。很多林书豪的比赛都在新浪网上直播。不过林书豪对战易建联所属的小牛队的比赛并没有显示在新浪网的赛程表上。沮丧的中国粉丝们只好通过其他并不稳定的在线直播观看比赛。球迷们发现林书豪再次闪耀赛场，尼克斯以104-97的比分赢得小牛队。与林书豪形成对比的是，易建联在整场比赛中都没能上场，沦为一个观战者。两个人的处境显示了中国体育系统与美国软实力的差距，对于中国当局来说，的确还是不看得好。