Yi's certainly having a huge impact off the court in Milwaukee:
Quote:
Bucks rookie Yi Jianlian has inspired a half dozen fan clubs and a burgeoning link between Milwaukee and China.
Now, a group of Chinese community leaders have latched onto Yi-mania and launched the state's first Chinese-language newspaper.
The Milwaukee Chinese Times, the product of four area professionals and a team of volunteers, published its inaugural issue Dec. 29.
The semiweekly paper aims to cover "the past, present and future of the Chinese in this state," said editor Ming Tao Jiang.
Topics include local community news, wire stories from China and, of course, coverage of Yi and the Bucks. Stories are written by volunteers.
Milwaukee's Chinese community got a shot in the arm when the Bucks drafted Yi in July, leading Ming and several friends to launch Yifansclub.com.
When the group realized how much excitement the rookie was generating, they decided the time was right to push ahead with the paper, an idea they had discussed for years.
The Times received advice and support from a Chinese-language publisher in Houston who followed a similar path when the Houston Rockets drafted Yao Ming in 2002.
"Yi does give us an inspiration," said Times chief executive Jay Li, "but we do not only focus on sports. We also record local news and Chinese achievement.
"The main motivation for this newspaper is that we want to give a platform for the people here to share their opinions and to share their feelings."
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High interest in Bucks rookie Yi Jianlian inspires the launch of a newspaper in the Chinese language
One of the founders of the paper says there are 10,000 Chinese in Milwaukee, not 1,200, no matter what the census said. That does sound like a more realistic number. There's probably at least 1,200 people of Chiness ancestry in Madison, and we're half Milwaukee's size.
New Chinese Newspaper in Milwaukee - all because of Yi
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