A Comparison Of Chinese Parenting In Battle Hymn Of The Tiger Mother

In the memoir Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, Amy is introduced as a typical China mother who is raising her kid in the United States. Instantly, readers can tell there’s a big difference between her parenting style and the American parenting style. Amy is a lot more strict, choses the instrument her daughters will practice for hours every day, and sets extremely high expectations she’s confident her children will meet. Although this seems a little outrageous when it comes to parenting in America, this is quite in line with the mold of a Chinese mother. Amy comes from a culture with a past orientation and high power distance, causing her to use more extreme parenting when compared to individualistic Western parents who are a lot less likely

Amy sticks to the Chinese parenting she learned, but she doesn’t get the desired results with Lulu. After growing up and seeing such different standards for her peers, Lulu begins to disobey her mother. However, Amy being the Chinese mother she is does not condone her daughter’s disobedience and feels the need to double down. She responds with “Had I not been strict enough? Given her too much” (173)? Amy’s past orientation causes her to think she didn’t do a good enough job of Chinese parenting, when instead it is the opposite problem. Lulu wants more Western values to be incorporated and for the restrictions of Chinese parenting to be gone. None of her friends have parents who exert as much control over their lives. In America, freedom and individual choice are valued, and Lulu’s mother doesn’t give her much of either. Lulu and her mother get into a fight where Lulu says “I know-I’m not what you want-I’m not Chinese! I don’t want to be Chinese” (205). The expectations and important values that Lulu is introduced to in her school life goes against what her mother values and expects of her. It is clear from the way she acts out and says that she doesn’t want to be Chinese, that she doesn’t like this one bit. While Chinese parenting might’ve worked in China, it is more difficult in America because Western values are bound to affect children growing up there, who might then start to see that style as extreme-just as Lulu