Ties to Lin peck at Taiwanese bookishness

That seems to be an understatement. On the day that Ma spoke, four Taiwanese morning newspapers ran full-color front-page photographs of Lin in action against the Dallas Mavericks, while TV news stations aired endless commentaries on his exploits.

While some US publications have tried to outdo each other with Lin-based puns, their Taiwanese counterparts refer to him simply as the “Hao” kid, a play on words that exploits his second Chinese name, which means both “good” and “heroic.”