Stereotypes of Asians have been a staple of American popular culture since the 19th century, from newspaper cartoons of menacing, images of buck-toothed Chinese to film characters like the evil Dr. Fu Manchu and the bowing, pidgin-speaking Charlie Chan.

In contemporary America, Asians—when and if they appear at all—are generally depicted as comical foreigners with “ching-chong” accents, from exchange student Long Duk Dong (“What’s happening, hot stuff?”) in Sixteen Candles to Han Lee, the stereotyped Korean restaurant
owner in CBS’s new comedy 2 Broke Girls.

David Leonard states that over Lin’s recent moments in the spotlight, the idea of race is playing out within the media and fan reception of the Asian American superstar. Further, Blackness is at the center of basketball, and Lin’s success forces people to “retreat into traditional storylines.”

The media continues to cast Lin in a “model minority” role whose intellect, personality, and ethnicity offer an alternative to the blackness in basketball. In this way, Lin has yet to transcend race, but is perhaps on his way…

But why is Jeremy Lin’s race/ethnicity such a major component representations of him in the first place?

People stand up and take note whenever someone of a particular race does something the public perceives as unusual for that particular race. There are numerous examples within the sporting world: When a quarterback is African-American, when the No. 1 golfer in the world is of multiple ethnicities, when a caucasian is a wide receiver and when a point guard is Asian-American, it violates preconceived notions and draws attention to that particular individual.