Saturday, February 5, 2011

Once Again, Controversy Sells: "Tiger Mom" Becomes a Conversation Piece

The Time Magazine article has this to say:

Even before Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, Chua's proudly politically incorrect account of raising her children "the Chinese way," arrived in bookstores Jan. 11, her parenting methods were the incredulous, indignant talk of every playground, supermarket and coffee shop. A prepublication excerpt in the Wall Street Journal (titled "Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior") started the ferocious buzz; the online version has been read more than 1 million times and attracted more than 7,000 comments so far. When Chua appeared Jan. 11 on the Today show, the usually sunny host Meredith Vieira could hardly contain her contempt as she read aloud a sample of viewer comments: "She's a monster"; "The way she raised her kids is outrageous"; "Where is the love, the acceptance?"

One reader made this comment:

"TR WR"
1. You can have a social life and good academics at the same time.
2. Most Chinese parents are stricter and emphasize academics, but few I know go to Amy Chua's extremes.
3. None of the successful Asians I know, including myself, was brought up with these abusive measures. I'm fairly certain all of us make more money than her pianist daughters.
4. Amy Chua is not "China" or "Chinese mom". She's a Filipino-American with Chinese roots married to a Jewish husband with half-Jew kids. The 1.4 billion people on the mainland are nothing like this.
5. Amy Chua just made a ton of money with this controversy because Americans can't see the middle ground between two extremes.

No comments: