Chinese Mothers Are Superior Motoko Rich Summary

Plato once said that, “A good decision is based on knowledge and not on numbers.” Plato is both right and wrong in this situation. Sometimes the math is what one must use to back up their knowledge which, in the end, makes them more scholarly. In her essay, “How Chinese Mothers Are Superior”, Amy Chua claims that her parenting style, although cruel to some, is the most efficient way to raise children. She states that, “Even when Western parents think they’re being strict, they usually don’t come close to being Chinese mothers” (316). Chua acknowledges the fact that most Western mothers would disagree with her and she simply does not care. Three years earlier, an author named, Motoko Rich, published an article called, “Literacy Debate: Online,

Rich has an almost stentorian or, loud, tone of voice but at the same time subtle. She makes her point, uses evidence to support it, and draws a conclusion from what she finds. Motoko states in her book that, “Even those who are most concerned about the preservation of books acknowledge that children need a range of reading experiences” (337). This is only one of many examples that proves that she is straight to the point but yet reasonable. In Chua’s writing there is a hint of humor which makes the tone somewhat less professional when one considers why she is writing it in the first place. Chua says, “The fact is that Chinese parents can do things that would seem unimaginable-even legally actionable-to Westerners” (317). She undermines Western mothers by pointing out the fact that some moms are worried about certain things that a Chinese mother wouldn’t even spend two seconds on. There are consequential events that take place which levels out some of the lighthearted things mentioned in her

The only thing the two authors have in common is that they capture their audience’s attention very well with their formulated type of writing style except for the fact that Chua lacks concrete evidence. In contrast, even though they both have a compare and contrast mode, Richs’ is more dominant and Chua’s has a tad bit of an argumentative mode in it as well. Their tone completely differs from each other. Chua is confident and a bit humorous whereas Rich is more serious and monotone. The biggest difference between the two authors is the rhetorical appeal. Amy Chua depends on her own logos and lacks in ethos where Motoko Rich is strong in both logos and ethos but lacks in pathos. In that difference, Rich comes out on top being able to use actual facts and not just personal experiences to formulate her thesis. All in all, Motoko Rich’s article trumps Amy Chua’s in more aspects than