On Weibo, Lin stays on top of the most talked about topics for over a week. From “Lin Shuhao Led Team to Seven Consecutive Wins” early last week and “Lin Shuhao Appears on the Cover of Time Magazine” (the current No. 1 searched topic on Weibo) a few days later, to “Lin Shuhao’s Fable Ended” on Saturday morning (Beijing time) and “Lin Shuhao 28 Points 14 Assists Defeated Mavericks” the next day, topics about Lin are getting tens of thousands of comments each day. 新浪NBA, the official weibo account of the largest Chinese portal website sina.com, calls him “the light of Asia,” and claims that “Linsanity has already become the hottest word in 2012.”

Lin’s Weibo account has almost 2 million followers, making his less than half a million followers worldwide on Twitter a quite moderate-sized crowd. Lin opened his bilingual Weibo account on May 8 last year and received instant attention. Lin had more than 10,000 Weibo followers only ten days after he set up his account, which was a surprise to him. “You guys are even cooler than my American fans, haha!,” he posted that day.

But it was his miraculous debut performances with NY Knicks that won him unprecedented popularity as an athlete with a non-Chinese citizenship. Even after Knicks were defeated by the Hornets on Friday, the fans still regarded him as a sort of demigod. As a fan defended him on Weibo, “He’s already a god. Nobody in this world can win all the time.”

While interest in Lin’s religion has been growing in the U.S. media, Chinese are quite indifferent to it perhaps partly because of the Chinese media’s downplay of the topic. Instead, people in China are more interested in Lin’s nationality and cultural identity.

Many Chinese are proud to share the same cultural heritage with him, but at the same time respect his American identity. People on Weibo have commented on the rumor that has been going around that China is trying to get Lin to play for the Chinese basketball team. “No matter how great Lin Shuhao is, he is an ABC (America Born Chinese), not Chinese, so some media professionals should show some respect,” a fan wrote. Another fan jokingly wrote, “Chinese say he’s Chinese, Americans say he’s American, South Koreans say he has Korean blood, and Taiwanese say you all shut up, he’s Taiwanese! He is Lin Shuhao who has swept the entire America.” “Lin Shuhao, I’ll support you forever. Asking you to come back to [China] to play is just a joke…” another fan wrote.

When it comes to allegiance to the Chinese cultural identity, some Chinese can be quite dogmatic. Just recently there was a public commotion over a Beijing University professor Kong Qingdong’s derogatory remarks concerning Hong Kongers’ post-colonial identities. However, in Lin’s case, although nationalist comments appear here and there, most Chinese fans seem to be pretty relaxed about Lin’s American identity, which can be considered a quite special treatment from the often relentless netizens in China. Just recently, Yao Ming had to publicly confirm that his daughter’s citizenship was American, and defend himself, saying that his daughter could change her nationality to Chinese when she’s eighteen.

Truth is, deep down, Chinese, perhaps not unlike Chinese Americans, are super psyched about this talented young man who is fast, strong, smart, and, most importantly, who wins. And no matter what, it looks that the Linanity is still going strong in China and it’s not going anywhere any time ssoon.

Reflecting on Kung Fu Panda 2 I saw yesterday, Chinese cartoons are hopeless; not only the technical aspect, but also the Americans’ understanding of Chinese culture is embarrassing (to Chinese); if we don’t change our understanding of cartoons as (something) only for kids, if we don’t ditch monotonous preaching (in cartoons), even if we had the Americans’ technology, we still can’t make good movies.

蓝人泪 writes:

After what I watched, my heart was perturbed. The panda was created in such a lively and interesting way in a foreign movie, but those Chinese blockbusters made me want to puke. When can China make a good one? I might not be able to wait till that day in my life.

Others show regret that the Americans stole these Chinese cultural elements, yet they are still positive about the Hollywood blockbuster, like 选矿人, who writes, “Dreamworks’s movies are surely better than domestically made films. What a shame that the foreigners used so many Chinese elements, but this is somewhat preservation of culture.”

Of course, not every Chinese is a fan of Kung Fu Panda 2. In fact, on May 16, a performance artist, Zhao Bandi, put in an ad on several major newspapers such as Nanfang Dush Bao and Xin Jingbao (below), calling Chinese audience to boycott Kung Fu Panda 2.

The ad reads: “I don’t go see Kong Fu Panda 2. What about you?”

In an interview with Beijing Wanbao (Beijing Evening) reproduced on Zhao’s blog, Zhao says that if he went to see Fung Fu Panda 2, he would be “cheated” by Americans. He explains:

When Kung Fu Panda opened, Dreamworks said that it was a love letter from Americans to China; during its publicity, Kung Fu Panda 2 is said to be the second love letter from Americans to China. The fact is, Hollywood’s claim of love for other nations is all fake; nobody in Hollywood would talk about her/his love for Chinese culture in a production meeting. On the contrary, they only make fun of China. This is what an American, Tim, said. He worked in Hollywood for two years, and is now supporting my boycott.

This Tim posted a video on 163.com explaining why Chinese should not go to see Kung Fu Panda 2.

When asked wheather he called for boycotting Kung Fu Panda 2 only or American blockbusters in general, he answers:

Boycotting Kung Fu Panda 2 is only a symbolic action. In general, many American blockbusters are very fake. They have fancy looks, but inside they are malicious. To use a somewhat inappropriate simile, American blockbusters are like drugs; they are highly seductive but also extremely harmful. Scheduled to open in the June 1st weekend (International Children’s Day), Kung Fu Panda 2 is meant to take hostage of China’s most innocent and youngest generation of audience, and feed our next generation with American cultural values. What should we let kids watch during June 1st holiday? Theaters should not always think about making money.

Zhao’s resistance has been supported by some others including Kong Qingdong, a renowned professor from Peking University. Kong says in an interview:

In the past, we want Hollywood movies, but they are American material and American ideology, but now even our Chinese symbols are taken by them, even the panda is taken. They use our symbols to conquer us. I don’t know what Hollywood is. Hollywood not only wants your money, but also wants to brainwash you and conquer your hearts.

Zhao’s call has been supported by many netizens who left comments on his blog, but others are skeptical about his motive, for Zhao has been known for being a “Panda Man,” i.e., consistently using panda as a motif in his performance art (see pictures below from 163.com).

In response to this question, his says:

I hope every Chinese can represent pandas, and every foreigner can also use the image of pandas, if he has good will, not just to make money.

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