“Why Chinese mothers are superior” is an essay published in The Wall Street Journal in January 2011. It is written by Amu Chua, who is also the author of the book “Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother”. In the essay deals with the ever controversial question of how to raise a child. How to make your kids grow up happy, strong and self-reliant. Different cultures have very different perspectives on upbringing and education, and in this essay Chua presents the Chinese parenting method. The essay caused a large stir, generating more than 4.000 comments on the webpage of The Wall Street Journal and around 100.000 comments on Facebook. The global debate that Amy Chua started is not surprising, since the Chinese way of raising children is very disciplinary and it places very high standards, since Chinese kids are stereotypically successful, as Chua also mentions in the very beginning: “They wonder what these parents do to produce so many math whizzes and music prodigies, what it’s like inside the family, and whether they could do it too. Well, I can tell them, because I’ve done it.” (p. 9 line 6)
Amy Chua divides the difference between Chinese and Western parenting into three main parts.
Her first point is that if the child gets a bad grade on a test, the Western parents would never actually blame their child. Instead, they would put the blame on the school, questioning the teacher’s abilities. If a Chinese child gets a bad grade, however, the parents would put the blame directly on the child, assuming that he or she did not work hard enough. Furthermore, they will punish the child and demand improvement.
Her second point is regarding the difference in the perception of who owes who. It is the common Chinese perception that the child owe...
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...e upbringing is so closely linked to cultural traditions and personal opinions about the meaning of life, since all parents basically wish the best for their children, and their methods of upbringing will depend on their perception of a good life. How do we define the good life? As many answers there is to that question, as many different ways of raising a child exist. Is a good life an academically successful life or is it rather a happy life, not depending on career? We definitely know what Amy Chua’s answer will be, but in the end, she does the right thing, respecting the Western technique on equal terms as he Chinese, which is of course why she was able to create this outrage throughout the world. Upbringing of children really is controversial, especially since it’s a very touchy subject, because who would want to be told that they have done it the wrong way?
Like the name of this article suggests, the writer's main purpose is to persuade the audience to make them believe that Chinese mothers are indeed superior. To support her argument she uses different methods to appeal to her audience's favor: she uses statistics of researches about Chinese mothers and Western mothers opinions, opinions that are mostly about how parents should or should not do when they are raising their children. She also uses passages of her life as a Chinese mother to support her argument. Also, she points out a few characteristics of western parents that are completely opposite to how a Chinese mother raises their children, which made her argument stronger. Nevertheless, there were some fallacies in her logic. One of her main fallacies is what we call "Hasty Generalization".
New Yorker Elizabeth Kalbert focuses on a story on America’s Top Parent. Amy Chua a writer on “The Roar of the Tiger mom,” Kalbert tells how there are two kinds of mothers. Amy Chua for instance is a Chinese woman who keeps her children from the outside world Chua, and her daughters of Chinese immigrants. Her daughters and herself practice their work every day and is a law school professor, who also includes only the best for her children. Although western mothers think they are being strict when their children were to practice their work.
Amy Chua utilizes evidence to verify that Western parenting practice is wrong and not as effective as Chinese parenting practice. In her article, Chua comments, “Chinese parents can do things that would seem unimaginable-even legally actionable-to Westerners, “Hey fatty-lose some weight.” By contrast, Western parents have to tiptoe around the issue” (Chua 54). She also gives her observation as evidence to convince Westerners treat their kid wrongly. She adds her observation in her article “Why Chinese Mothers are Superior,” “I also once heard a Western father toast his adult daughter by calling her “beautiful and incredibly competent.” She later told me that made her feel like garbage” (Chua 54). Brooks, in opposite, does not fight against to prove Chinese parenting techniques are completely wrong. However, he just want to give evidence so that Chua and Chinese, in common, understand Western parenting practices are good in some ways. In Brooks’ article, he clears, “So I’m not against the way Chua pushes her daughters” (Brooks 59). Furthermore, David Brooks writes in his article “I wish she recognized that in some important ways the school cafeteria is more intellectually demanding than the library” (Brooks
“In one study of 50 Western American mothers and 48 Chinese immigrant mothers, almost 70% of the Western mothers said either that ‘stressing academic success is not good for children’ or that ‘parents need to foster the idea that learning is fun.’ By contrast, roughly 0% of the Chinese mothers felt the same way. Instead, the vast majority of the Chinese mothers said that they believe their children can be ‘the best’ students, that ‘academic achievement reflects successful parenting,’ and that if children did not excel at school then there was ‘a problem’ and parents ‘were not doing their job.’ … Chinese parents spend approximately ten times as long every day drilling academic activities with their children. By contrast, Western kids are more likely to participate in sports teams” (Chua 5). Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua is an engulfing novel which clearly distinguishes the difference between Western style of parenting and the Chinese style of parenting. The quote stated above shows some of the statistics that we completed to write this book. The story is a breathless and emotional memoir of Amy Chua, consisting mostly her two daughters and husband. While the Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother appears to be about the battle between a parent and a child and the relationship they share, the author, Amy Chua, has actually implied that it is important for the children to start developing skills early on to benefit in the future as well as be successful in their lives.
My mom would always say, “American born Chinese students have it easy in America.” One key difference between the American education system and Chinese education system is the way they are taught. Being raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, I went to school to understand the idea of analyzing and understanding concepts. After reading Only Hope, I realized that their education is based on more memorizations. To Chinese students, understand the concept and apply it is not the most important, you must just memorize it for the exam. Many parents in China would say that going on vacation and relaxing is a waste of time because they need to focus on learning. In Greenspan’s article, it mentions that a student in China is the top of her class and is fluent in English, yet she cannot go on vacation because her mother wants her to spend time learning, many students in China
One type of effect the Chinese mothers’ expectations has in their relationship with their “Americanized” daughter is negative since the mothers are unable to achieve anything. An-Mei Hsu expects her daughter to listen and obey as the young ones do in Chinese culture, but instead receives a rebellious and stubborn daughter, “‘You only have to listen to me.’ And I cried, ‘But Old Mr. Chou listens to you too.’ More than thirty years later, my mother was still trying to make me listen’” (186-187). Instead of the circumstances improving, the mother is never able to achieve anything; her forcing and pushing her daughter to the Chinese culture goes to a waste. They are both similar in this sense because both are stubborn; the daughter learns to be stubborn through American culture and wants to keep herself the way she is, whereas the mother wants to remove this teaching from American culture and does not give u...
Similarly, Wong also grew up in America with a traditional Chinese mother. In contrast, Wong’s upbringing involves her mother forcing her into attending two different schools. After her American school day, Wong continues on with Chinese school to learn both cultures. Her mother felt it was her duty to “[. . .] learn the language of [her] heritage” (Wong 144). This puts a burden on Wong as she starts to despise the Chinese culture.
The Chinese mothers, so concentrated on the cultures of their own, don't want to realize what is going on around them. They don't want to accept the fact that their daughters are growing up in a culture so different from their own. Lindo Jong, says to her daughter, Waverly- "I once sacrificed my life to keep my parents' promise. This means nothing to you because to you, promises mean nothing. A daughter can promise to come to dinner, but if she has a headache, a traffic jam, if she wants to watch a favorite movie on T.V., she no longer has a promise."(Tan 42) Ying Ying St.Clair remarks- "...because I remained quiet for so long, now my daughter does not hear me. She sits by her fancy swimming pool and hears only her Sony Walkman, her cordless phone, her big, important husband asking her why they have charcoal and no lighter fluid."(Tan 64)
The author, Amy Chua, portrays her opinionated argument that Chinese children are more Why Chinese Mothers are Superior Why Chinese Mothers are Superior successful because of the way they are brought up in her article, “Why Chinese Mothers are Superior (2011)”. This theme is important because it compares and contrasts the tactics of Chinese mothers to Western mothers to strive for their children to be successful. This paper describes the three key arguments Chau (2011) ties into Ed124 and why Chinese parents act the way they do towards their children.
Chinese parents override their children's desires and preferences at a young age to steer them clear of any distractions. Chua begins her writing piece with a list of activities that she would not allow her children to do. From activities such as attending a sleepover to achieve grades lower than an A, Chua’s children were pushed to do everything a certain way. It might seem restraining to the child but “ Chinese parents believe that they know what is best for their children… They would give up anything for their children,”(Chua 64). They are essentially limiting their children's choices to give them a predestination to success while still giving them the freedom to express themselves. Western parents are the complete opposite. They allow their children to pursue whatever they please even if it were wrong. This is how American women are drawn to self-hating behaviors caused by pressures of Guyland. Kimmel states “There are plenty of girls who avoid the more dire pitfalls of females of female adolescence in America today–from eating disorders to self-mutilation, reckless promiscuity to binge drinking. Yet man do not. And while there are several reasons that might explain the kind of self-hating behaviors described above, none is more relevant to our conversation than the pressures exerted by the culture of Guyland,”(244). Harlot sexual tendencies, alcohol abuse, and degrading sorority pledging are all examples of the vices women are drawn to due to the loose parenting of westerners. Western parenting does not push their children into the right direction like Chinese parenting, revealing them to the dark aspects of Guyland where women risk their authenticity and
One thing that a kid must understand is that parents have been down the road that they are going down. Parents have experienced the good and the bad. They know the consequences and benefits of certain things. This can apply to anything in life from small decisions to life changing decisions later in life. A daughter or son must always remember to respect the input from a parent. In Tan’s, “A Pair of Tickets” Jane does not realize why being “Chinese” was always so important to her mother until she was thirty-six years old and on her way to China for the first time. Jane’s mother had experienced hardships in China, “…little babies she was forced to abandon on a road…”(Tan 242) Jane’s mother had a heart for China and realized one day that Jane would too. For this reason she never let Jane forget that she was Chinese. Her mother was right. Jane began to realize what she had denied for so long. Experience plays a big role in parents and kids agreeing, but so does how the world
The author defined "owe" as a form of obligation that is to be fulfilled unwillingly. In support of her argument she presented the case of friendship. When two people are friends they help each other, but they are not obliged to make their share of sacrifices. She stated that the term "owe" undermines the role of mutuality. "Owe" represents obligations that must be fulfilled irrespective of the person's emotions. Thus, the term "owe" should not be used to refer to a child's duties towards his/her parents.
Lindo Jong provides the reader with a summary of her difficulty in passing along the Chinese culture to her daughter: “I wanted my children to have the best combination: American circumstances and Chinese character. How could I know these two things do not mix? I taught her how American circumstances work. If you are born poor here, it's no lasting shame . . . You do not have to sit like a Buddha under a tree letting pigeons drop their dirty business on your head . . . In America, nobody says you have to keep the circumstances somebody else gives you. . . . but I couldn't teach her about Chinese character . . . How to know your own worth and polish it, never flashing it around like a cheap ring. Why Chinese thinking is best”(Tan 289).
She’s a mother, she’s a grandmother in her family. She also wants her daughter, her son in law, and their family get a better life. She wants to improve her family member’s life quality, but she’s keeping her own thought in her mind. She wants her granddaughter grows up as normal as her thought, but her daughter doesn’t agree her Chinese education method. In her mind, her granddaughter is a Chinese, she wants to use her Chinese education method to let everybody else know that she’s right. But her daughter thought she cannot assimilate into a foreign country, she cannot take good care of mixed children or foreign children, even her granddaughter, even a Chinese and Irish mixed child. In her family, she is a free baby-sitter of her granddaughter, because if she doesn’t, her daughter may feel she is not supportive, and her daughter is busy every day and every day. Her son in law has not work, and he just goes to the gym to be a mam. At the end her daughter still argue with her, still disagree with her. After her daughter found a new baby sitter, her daughter take her around to look at apartments. Her daughter keeps to have different mind with her, even everybody know that she is fierce. They all adhere to themselves minds are correct, that’s due to the different countries’ education method. Even she is fierce, even she knows how to take care of a child, even she wants their family gets better, she
“Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior” is an excerpt from Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua, a Yale Law professor. In this excerpt the author explains why Chinese children tend to be more successful in life and expresses her dislike towards Western parenting. The first idea Chua explains is a list of activities her daughters are allowed to do and not do in order to focus solely on academic progress. Second, the author demonstrates the contrast in mindset between Chinese mothers and Western mothers by explaining how Chinese mothers feel differently than Western mothers in regards to academic success and learning. Furthermore, she describes how Chinese mothers can demand things from their children. Finally, they can also say