I was looking Yao's stats at basketball-reference.com, and clicked on "China" to see Wang ZhiZhi and Mengke Bateer's stats. I was shocked to see someone named Tom Meschery, who was born in Harbin, Manchuria in 1938. I did some searching, and it turns out that he was the son of Russian immigrants who moved to China to escape the Bolshevik Revolution. He even spent time in a Japanese internment camp after they invaded China. Later, Meschery moved to the US, where he's lived since then. Meschery had a 10 year career as an NBA player (becoming an All-Star in 1963), before coaching for one season in the ABA. Meschery is white, and I have yet to find out whether he was ever a Chinese citizen. However, it's possible that Yao is only the second-ever Chinese citizen (former or otherwise) to be an NBA All-Star. Credit to JimRaynor55 from ************.com http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/m/meschto01.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Meschery
well, i think a lot foreigners dont' realize that chinese is not ethnicity, but nationality there are a lot of russian chinese citizens not to argue whether this guy is chinese or not, probably not but there are 56 ethnic groups in china, all chinese i'm mixed with at least 2 of the ethnic groups but yao is definitely the first Han chinese allstar
yup it should count.. I think americans are not fully aware. I mean all these African players are americans. .hence we call them african american. We consider them american right? So why cant this guy be chinese? Also another example is Michael Chang and Michelle Kwan. Are they not americans? Michelle Kwan is not white there fore she is not american and cant represent the US at hte olympics... thats the argument you guys are saying agianst this guy. anyways yes there is acutally a lot of russian - chinese in china.. and lots of white Taiwanese in taiwan..
IMHO at best Tom Meschery can be considered a Japanese. He was born 1938 of Russian parenthood. At that time, Manchuria, comprised of at least 3 big provinces (Liaoning, Heilongjiang and Jilin) was under Japan ruling/colonization (Japan invaded China and occupied Manchuria from 1931 to 1945). He was sent away with his parents to concentration camps in Japan shortly afterwards, and spent portion of his infanthood/childhood there in Japan, before immigrating to USA. How can this guy be considered Chinese ??
well you missed my point entirely. i know nothing about this dude and i dont really care about him. I was just saying if Michelle Kwan or any person from a different ethnicity can be an "american" in america .. why cant people of different ethinicities living in china not be considered chinese?
So, I guess if a French guy was born in 1943, and he came to America later, he's a German, right? I mean, German ruled over France at the time, right? Brilliant!
For a brief period there were many posters from China in the D & D. Almost always when general discussions reverted to who was Chinese, they would essentially that if you are not ethnically Han, you are not Chinese. I saw this posted several times around here and it was incredibly disturbing the first few times I read it.
Hey Pryuen, that place belongs to our motherland, I will never recognise Japanese rule in our country. No Chinese should. So the gentleman is the first Asia All-Star, Chinese All-Star in NBA, whatsoever, who cares??
Tom Meschery, a Chinese but not in appearance. A Chinese because he is born in the land of Middle Kingdom, sure. A Chinese because he is a Chinese citizen at the time under Japanese occupation, maybe (if China still recognised the land belong to them even under occupation). A Chinese, who really care?
No matter the first Chinese All Star or not. No one can deny that Yao is the best Chinese NBA player and I am sure he would be a legendary Center in the league and the member of HOF![/FONT]
IMO, If someone was born in China, you can't deny that he is chinese. You just can't. This thread is heading for the D&D.
