From Dana O'Neil's March 25, 2008 column "Alexander's post-up game has taken him from doghouse to Sweet 16"
From the time he was 2 until he was a junior in high school, Alexander lived in Taiwan and China while his parents worked for Nestle. He is fluent in Mandarin and will gladly jot down tips in Chinese on a notebook if you're looking for places to eat when you visit the country (as one reporter was postgame last week). Hahn calls him flaky -- "cerebral flaky," he clarified -- because Alexander is as likely to debate what's going on in the Chinese government as he is the best YouTube video.
A through-and-through American kid now, he suffered horrible culture shock as a re-transplanted American when his family settled in suburban Maryland.
"It's like America's youth has this great inside joke," Alexander said. "And if you don't grow up here, you don't get it."
No comments:
Post a Comment