Jeremy Lin - Early Life

Early Life

Lin was born in Los Angeles, and raised in a Christian family in the San Francisco Bay Area city of Palo Alto. His parents, Lin Gie-Ming and Shirley Lin, emigrated from Taiwan to the United States in the mid-1970s, settling first in Virginia before moving to Indiana, where they both attended universities. They are dual nationals of both Taiwan and the U.S. Lin's paternal family comes from Beidou, Changhua, in Taiwan (his father's distant ancestors were from Zhangpu County, Fujian, in mainland China, and settled in Taiwan in 1707), while his maternal grandmother emigrated to Southern Taiwan in the late 1940s from Pinghu, Zhejiang in mainland China.

Lin's parents are both 5 feet 6 inches (1.68 m) tall. His maternal grandmother's family was tall, and her father was over 6 feet (1.8 m). Lin has an older brother, Josh, and a younger brother, Joseph. Gie-Ming taught his sons to play basketball at the local YMCA. Shirley helped form a National Junior Basketball program in Palo Alto where Lin played. She worked with coaches to ensure his playing did not affect academics. She was criticized by her friends for letting Lin play so much basketball, but she allowed him to play the game he enjoyed.