China is facing a conundrum over the “Lin-sanity” phenomenon that is sweeping the world of basketball with the sensational rise of Jeremy Lin, the New York Knicks player.
Mr Lin, 23, has gone from obscurity to the world’s most-watched basketball star in under a week. His story – an unwanted player who shines when given a chance – has the right mix of adversity and success to captivate the US, but it poses a problem for the media in basketball-mad China.
In mainland China, the US star’s following on Weibo, the Twitter-like microblog, has exploded to more than a million fans. But official Chinese media have been notably quiet. While this is partly owing to the typical slow response of the hulking state-run media, there are signs that his Taiwanese background and devout Christianity sit uncomfortably with government censors.