The fact that the U.S. and the Soviet Union had such polar opposite ideologies made the Americans' fears easy to exploit by the government, media and the entertainment industry. Their anxieties were mirrored through U.S. pop culture throughout the Cold War from the 1950s-1980s. The rapid technological change that happened during that period was a huge contributor to these anxious feelings, which I find reflected misunderstanding and confusion leading to paranoia and a need to find a scapegoat when something seemed awry. The development of nuclear weapons as well as the spread of TV as an integral part of home life brought all the drama and fear home.
When the US formed the FBI and CIA to protect the country from security threats, it created a culture of fear and paranoia.
The West, especially the US, found the Soviet Union a threat as communism did not have a race or "look" and that anyone could be communist. This raised fears that it could spread rapidly and threaten the US way of life. [cite show we watched with the dad getting thrown in jail when his kids became communist youth]. The fact that the US and the Soviet Union had such polar opposite ideologies made the Americans' fears easy to exploit by news media and the entertainment industry. The spread of TV as an integral part of home life brought all the drama home.
(PARANOIA) During the 1950s, McCarthyism had taken the US by storm after Senator (first name) McCarthy stated that communists had infiltrated the government. His way of weaving together fact and fiction convinced people and initiated a mindset of paranoia and fear. His beliefs led to a massive witch hunt in which notable people were blacklisted as communists with little proof (cite more about this). Calling someone a communist became the norm whenever someone wanted to denounce someone or a group that they did not agree with.
The culture of questioning authorities in the late 60s/70s was a runoff of the McCarthy era of paranoia.
1980s and nuclear doomsdays beliefs
Tiger mother Battle
America as one of the states that has largest immigrants in the world, it contains people from Mexico, India, China, Vietnam, and the people from all over the world. Immigration mostly happened after the 20th century, so that the majority of them already have the second, third, or even fourth generations. “Roughly 6 in 10 said they consider themselves to be a "typical American," though they maintain ties to their ancestral roots” (Moni Basu, CNN). They have been moved to America enough time to consider themselves as a typical American. However, they still maintain their own culture. While those people emigrating from their countries, they bring their language, food, and culture as well. And then, transculturation happened when their culture meet the American culture. The autobiography I chose, “Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother” by Amy Chua, is a book talked about how a second generation of a Chinese immigrant teaches and treats her ...
How to Manage Notification Preferences in the Odoo 17
The fact that the U.S. and the Soviet Union had such polar opposit.docx
1. The fact that the U.S. and the Soviet Union had such polar
opposite ideologies made the Americans' fears easy to exploit
by the government, media and the entertainment industry. Their
anxieties were mirrored through U.S. pop culture throughout the
Cold War from the 1950s-1980s. The rapid technological
change that happened during that period was a huge contributor
to these anxious feelings, which I find reflected
misunderstanding and confusion leading to paranoia and a need
to find a scapegoat when something seemed awry. The
development of nuclear weapons as well as the spread of TV as
an integral part of home life brought all the drama and fear
home.
When the US formed the FBI and CIA to protect the
country from security threats, it created a culture of fear and
paranoia.
The West, especially the US, found the Soviet Union a
threat as communism did not have a race or "look" and that
anyone could be communist. This raised fears that it could
spread rapidly and threaten the US way of life. [cite show we
watched with the dad getting thrown in jail when his kids
became communist youth]. The fact that the US and the Soviet
Union had such polar opposite ideologies made the Americans'
fears easy to exploit by news media and the entertainment
industry. The spread of TV as an integral part of home life
brought all the drama home.
(PARANOIA) During the 1950s, McCarthyism had taken the US
by storm after Senator (first name) McCarthy stated that
communists had infiltrated the government. His way of weaving
together fact and fiction convinced people and initiated a
mindset of paranoia and fear. His beliefs led to a massive witch
hunt in which notable people were blacklisted as communists
2. with little proof (cite more about this). Calling someone a
communist became the norm whenever someone wanted to
denounce someone or a group that they did not agree with.
The culture of questioning authorities in the late 60s/70s was a
runoff of the McCarthy era of paranoia.
1980s and nuclear doomsdays beliefs
Tiger mother Battle
America as one of the states that has largest immigrants in
the world, it contains people from Mexico, India, China,
Vietnam, and the people from all over the world. Immigration
mostly happened after the 20th century, so that the majority of
them already have the second, third, or even fourth generations.
“Roughly 6 in 10 said they consider themselves to be a "typical
American," though they maintain ties to their ancestral roots”
(Moni Basu, CNN). They have been moved to America enough
time to consider themselves as a typical American. However,
they still maintain their own culture. While those people
emigrating from their countries, they bring their language, food,
and culture as well. And then, transculturation happened when
their culture meet the American culture. The autobiography I
chose, “Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother” by Amy Chua, is a
book talked about how a second generation of a Chinese
immigrant teaches and treats her children, who are the third
generation of immigrants, in Chinese traditional way. She also
talks about the revolution of one of her daughter, how she
realizes that her teaching method is too strict compare to the
American way.
The biography I chose is “Battle Hymn of the Tiger
Mother” by Amy Chua. Looking at the outside appearance of
the book, the color of the cover is red with some ancient
3. Chinese on it. There are also some comments on the cover, such
as “A hilarious, hair-raising memoir” by Sunday Time and
“Courageous and though provoking” by New York Times, and
two other comments. The color red means stress and anger, but
also means love and passion, which represents Tiger mother’s
love and strict to her daughters, also the comments. It seems the
name of each chapter represents each stage of Amy Chua’s
attitude toward teaching her daughters. From my perspective,
the publisher aims to create a sense of the harsh of tiger mother
but also her love to them.
The very earliest generation of Chinese immigrants to the
United State was at Qing Dynasty, 1872. Most of them were
born in Scholar and royal families. Therefore, they are all very
smart and talented. The Chinese government sponsored them to
study in the other side of ocean, the United States, and they
have all been admitted to excellent American universities
including Harvard, Yale, and so on. It is our impressions that
the first generation of immigrants is all strive, sparing. They
provide opportunities and chances for the second generations to
get good growing environment, education, and so on by their
hard working. Therefore, there is a common impression of the
second and the third generations of immigrants that they are
lazy and like to show off, because they get everything from the
first generation easily. However, there are families prefer to
keep the good virtues, such as, hard working and sparing, so
that they grow up their children in a strict way. “Battle Hymn of
the Tiger Mother”, the personal story of Amy Chua writes in
this book is a specific example of a family like that.
This book talks about the story between author herself and
her daughters. The author of the book, Amy Chua, as a daughter
of Chinese immigrants, she was graduated from Harvard
University and now employed at Yale University as a professor.
She married to another professor who is also employed at Yale
University, they have two daughters. She wants her daughters to
obey whatever she said.
In reading the biography, Battle Hymn of the Tiger mother
4. by Amy Chua, I notice the tiger mother, Amy Chua who is the
second generation of immigrants, and her family is live in the
united state. Instead of teaches her daughters in Western way,
she still used traditional Chinese way to taught and treated her
two daughters. When I first read it, I was surprised by tiger
mother's ten stick rules, even though I come from a Chinese
family. She thought the subjects she let her children learn are
the best for them and everything she let her daughters did would
help them better grow up.
This is significant because she gives a lot of examples of
how she treats her children and how western way of treating
children is different from Chinese way. For example, she drove
her daughters two hours to New York only for attend a violin
interest class. Here is a quote of Amy describing the difference
between western parents and Chinese parents, “Western parents
try to respect their children’s individuality, encouraging them to
pursue their true passions, supporting their choices, and
providing positive reinforcement and a nurturing environment.
By contrast, the Chinese believe that the best way to protect
their children is by preparing them for the future, letting them
see what they’re capable of, and arming them with skills, work
habits, and inner confidence that no one can ever take
away.”(Amy 69).
"I don't want to be Chinese. Why can't you get that through
your head? I hate the violin. I hate my life. I hate you, and I
hate this family!" (Amy) Of course, too much rules and stress
create conflict between Amy and her younger daughter; because
the younger daughter does not think she has freedom. However,
Amy Chua does not mind her daughter hate her, she just want to
give her daughter the best education and best thing for her.
Later, with younger daughter’s unremitting resist, Amy
compromised with her daughter that she let her daughter play
tennis which is a hobby younger daughter really like instead of
violin which is the hobby Amy force her to learn. That is an
example of transculturation that Amy accepts the Western way
of parenting. It is the thing I will not notice if I did not read
5. Pratt’s article. “Meanwhile, our job in the Americas course
remains to figure out how to make that crossroads the best site
for learning that it can be. We are looking for the pedagogical
arts of the contact zone.” (Pratt 6). It seems that in her essay,
“the Arts of the Contact Zone”, Pratt emphasizes the importance
of interaction in learning. She believes one of the best ways to
study is to make interactions, because it helps people critically
think and people learn things by actually doing and thinking it.
She sum up this ideas to “contact zone” which is interaction
between two sides. From my perspective, I agree with Pratt’s
opinion. The conflict between Amy and her younger daughter is
kind of an interaction. Through this interaction, Amy learned
she is too strict, and things are changing that she cannot use the
old Chinese way to educate her daughter.
In her book, Amy also talks about the difference between
Chinese education system and Western education system. The
education system of Chinese and U.S are completely different.
Although the Chinese education system seems efficient and has
good reputation in the world, the tough homework and high
stress are not appropriate to everyone. There is a bias of
Chinese are all good at math. However, Chinese students need
to do tons of math practices so that they are very familiar with
the formulas and problem solving process. That is what will not
happen in American school. Chinese believes practice is more
important. In the contrary, American think the flexibility and
diversity is more important. Same as the education system, the
Chinese parents and the western parents are also completely
different, except they both love their children. Western parents
are anxious about their children’s self-esteem, happiness. They
may give some suggestion or help analyze the problem, but will
let kids do the decision themselves. "One of the biggest
differences I see between Western and Chinese parents is that
Chinese parents assume strength rather than fragility." (Amy
Chua) On the contrary, Chinese parents think they give live to
their children, so that their children owe them everything. They
think they know what is best for the kids, and will force them to
6. obey it. For example, the list of thing Amy Chua does not allow
her children to do,
· attend a sleepover
· “have a playdate
· be in a school play
· complain about not being in a school play
· watch TV or play computer games
· choose their own extracurricular activities
· get any grade less than an A
· not be the No. 1 student in every subject except gym and
drama
· play any instrument other than the piano or violin
· not play the piano or violin”
The “contact zone” Pratt talks about, which also known as
transculturation, can be applied to Chua’s book. Her book and
story is a mix of Chinese culture and Western culture. To have a
better understanding of transculturation, there is a very
interesting example in the movie Red Doors. This movie is
similar to this book that they both talked about transculturation,
tiger mother, and the resist of younger daughter. There is one
sense that the youngest daughter dancing traditional Chinese
dance, but wearing a sneaker, which is an example of
transculturation. There are also some similar examples in Amy’s
book. At the end of the book, Amy accept her younger daughter
to learn tennis, it is a representation of Amy accept the Western
education system and parenting.
Luckily, my parents use half Chinese way and half Western
way to educate me. They let me do the decision myself and
learn whatever I want, but I need to be also good at study and
the hobby I chose to learn. My parent’s way of educate me are
also transculturation. However, I know a lot of parents like
Amy Chua in China. From my perspective, they give too much
stress and expect too much from their children.
In her article, “AMERICA’S TOP PARENT: What’s behind
the “Tiger Mother” craze?”, Kolbert uses Amy Chua as example
talked about the America’s top parent. Amy Chua as a daughter
7. of Chinese immigrants, she was graduated from Harvard
University and now employed at Yale University as a professor.
She married to another professor who is also a professor at Yale
University, they have two daughters. Parenting is hard, the
author claims that many parents are like Amy Chua. They love
their children, of course, but their love is too harsh. Her
growing up environment is as same as how she treats and
teaches her children. Her parents made an exactly road for her
to walk. However, she did not walk the way her parents direct
to her. Amy Chua end her book with a clearly claim that she has
changed that she gives her children more freedom, she
communicate more with them, and that is a transculturation
between Chinese and western.
Reference
1. Basu Moni. Immigrant in America: the second generation
story. CNN.
http://inamerica.blogs.cnn.com/2013/02/07/immigrants-in-
america-the-second-generation-story/. February, 7th, 2013
2. Seligman D. Scott. THE FORGOTTEN STORY OF THE
“FIRST CHINESE AMERICAN”. Bucknell University.
https://www.bucknell.edu/about-
bucknell/communications/bucknell-magazine/recent-
issues/spring-2013/the-forgotten-story-of-the-first-chinese-
american.
3. Fang Angela, CHINESE EDUCATION SYSTEM VS. U.S
EDUCATION SYSTEM.
http://blog.tutorming.com/expats/chinese-education-system-vs-
us-education-system. June, 3rd, 2016
4. The U.S. Educational System.
https://educationusa.state.gov/experience-studying-usa/us-
educational-system.
5. Goodin Kate. Chinese vs. Western Parenting. Parenting.
https://www.parenting.com/blogs/show-and-tell/kate-
parentingcom/chinese-vs-western-parenting.
6. Elmasry Faiza. Comparing American and Chinese Parent.
8. Learning English.
https://learningenglish.voanews.com/a/comparing-american-
and-chinese-parents-116355614/113764.html. February, 16th,
2011
7. Victoria Segai. Review: Paperbacks: Non-fiction: Battle
Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua (Bloomsbury, pounds
7.99). ProQuest.
https://search.proquest.com/docview/922056436?accountid=119
99#center. February 18th, 2012
8. Shuyun Sun. Observer Review: SELF-HELP: The iron- fisted
guide to successful parenting-Chinese style: Battle Hymn of the
Tiger Mother Amy Chua Bloomsbury pounds 16.99, pp256.
ProQuest.
https://search.proquest.com/docview/848450747?accountid=119
99#center. January 30th, 2011.
9. Lee Georgia, Red Door, 2005
10. Kolbert Elizabeth. AMERICA’S TOP PARENT: What’s
behind the “Tiger Mother” craze? The NEW YORKER. January
31th, 2011.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2011/01/31/americas-
top-parent.
Tiger mother Battle
America as one of the s
tates
that has largest immigrant
s in the world
,
it contains people
from Mexico, India, China,
Vietnam, and the people from all over the world. Immigration
mostly happened after the 20
th
9. century, so that
the majority of them already have the second,
thi
rd, or even fourth generations. “
Roughly 6 in 10 said they consider themselves to be a
"typical Am
erican," though they maintain ties to their ancestral roots” (
Moni Basu
, CNN
).
They have been moved to America enough time to consider
themselves as a typical American.
However, they still maintain their own culture.
While those people emigrating from
their
countries, they bring their language, food, and culture as well.
And then, transculturation
happened when their culture meet the American culture. T
he autobiography I
chose, “Battle
Hymn of the Tiger Mother” by Amy Chua, is
a book talked about how a
second generation of
a Chinese immigrant teaches
and treats her children, who are
the third generation of
immigrants, in
Chinese traditional way. She also talks about the revolution of
one of her
daughter, how she realize
s
10. that her
teaching method is too s
trict compare to the American
way.
The biography I chose is “Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother” by
Amy Chua.
L
ooking at
the outside
appearance
of the book, t
he color of the cover is red with some ancient Chinese
on it.
There are also
some
comments on the cover, such as “A hilarious, hair
-
raising memoir”
by Sunday Time and “Courageous and though provoking” by
New York Times, and two other
comments.
The color red means stress and anger, but also mean
s
love and passion,
which
represents
Tiger
mother
11. ’
s love and strict to her daughters, also the comments.
It seems the
name of
each
chapter represents
each stage of Amy Chua
’
s attitude toward teaching her
2018/5/4 Chinese Education System VS. U.S Education System
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us-education-system 1/9
CHINESE EDUCATION SYSTEM VS. U.S
EDUCATION SYSTEM
Angela Fang | June 03, 2016 | | 11 Comments
Education may be one of the most in�uential forces in society
today. A good education that nurtures
intellect and curiosity can impact children as soon as they step
into the classroom. With the world’s
largest population, China provides its citizens a diverse school
system: public schools for students of
all ages, specialized schools for the disabled, private schools
and vocational schools among the
many other institutions for education.
However, since it’s created under the in�uence of a
fundamentally different culture, some structural
aspects of China’s education system may seem strange to
12. outsiders. Here are some comparisons
between China’s and America’s education systems:
ORGANIZATION OF GRADE LEVELS
TutorMing China Expats & Culture Blog
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China’s education system has three main levels, composed of
Primary, Secondary, and Post-
Secondary. Primary education (小学; xiǎoxué) is what we
typically call elementary level education.
Secondary school is split into Lower and Upper, called 初中
(chūzhōng) and 高中 (gāozhōng); these
are equivalent to middle school and high school respectively.
The separation of these grade levels
usually go 6-3-3, where 1 to 6 grade would belong in
elementary school, 7 to 9 in another, and
10 to 12 comprising high school.
In the U.S, 1 through 8 grades are labeled by years (For
example: “I’m in 7 grade”) and high
school and college classes are arranged as “freshman”,
“sophomore”, “junior”, and “senior.” China has
each class named according to rank in their educational
subgroup. Seventh grade is known as 初一,
eighth is 初二, and ninth 初三. ("一"，"二", and "三" is "one,"
13. "two", and "three" in Chinese.) Upper-
Secondary School and Post-Secondary education (so for
example, twelfth grade is called 高三 and
second year in college called 大二).
REQUIRED EDUCATION LEVEL
Unlike the U.S, where compulsory education laws require
students to stay in school until 16~18 years
of age (state-by-state law), all students in China are required to
complete at least nine years of
education. Students can either opt to enter Upper-Secondary
School, Vocational Secondary School,
or enter the workforce directly afterwards.
SCHOOL DAY
While it’s common for high school or even middle school
students in America to hustle about to their
next class when the bell rings, in China your instructor is the
one that comes to you. It’s typical for
students to stay in a classroom during multiple lessons as
teachers rotate. Unlike American schools
that provide electives (such as choosing either biology or
chemistry), students in China are often
required to take the same classes until high school.
The length of a school day also varies. While in America
typically school starts at 8 and ends
somewhere around 3 for K-12, in China the option of evening
sessions are offered during middle and
high school. In preparation for testing into higher educational
institutions, students often use this time
to self-study or receive tutoring. Lunch periods are also often
longer than that of American schools;
some Chinese middle schools and high schools offer lunch
14. breaks during the day that can span up to
two hours.
APPLYING FOR HIGHER EDUCATION
While in America attending high school is a right, in China
children are required to test into their
preferred high schools. Students can attempt to obtain higher
education by passing entrance exams,
which asks questions from a multitude of subjects and uses the
�nal scores to rank and �le students
to different institutions. The Senior High School Entrance
Exams (中考; zhōngkǎo) make students face
rigorous problems and is generally what determines which
schools students end up attending.
st th th th
th th
st th th
2018/5/4 Chinese Education System VS. U.S Education System
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us-education-system 3/9
Applicants set preferences beforehand, where they rank which
schools they wish to attend, and are
offered admission based on their scores.
Seeking college education in China is a similar process. While
teenagers in the US are graded
holistically based on a multitude of factors—extracurricular
15. activities, volunteer practices, GPA, SAT
or ACT test scores, essays, potential contribution to college
environment—students in China are
mostly graded on a standardized national exam. The National
Higher Education Entrance
Examination, called 高考 (Gāokǎo), operates similarly and is
hosted nationwide on June 7 Although
each student experience some difference over what they’re
being tested on based on their province,
three main categories are a must for all: literature, mathematics,
and foreign language (typically
English). The students are accepted based on the universities
they express interest in, the threshold
for admittance of these said universities, and the students’ test
results.
Because of how signi�cant 高考 test scores are, there have been
incidents of cheating in testing
arenas. Pressure from months of cramming and dedication,
along with the high stakes of failing,
always prompt several test takers to take the risk. In recent
years China has even deployed drones
above the testing facilities to pinpoint suspicious activities.
Attempting to use surrogate test takers
and wireless communication devices has not been unheard of.
COLLEGE / HIGHER EDUCATION
In universities, like in many other countries, students can earn a
bachelor’s degree (学士学位; xuéshì
xuéwèi) and progress upward to a master’s (硕士学位;
shuòshì xuéwèi) and doctoral degree (博士学
位; bóshì xuéwèi). Applying as “Undecided” into college,
although a common practice amongst
American teens, is usually unheard of in China. The majority of
colleges in China require students to
16. declare a major in Humanities or the Sciences instead of having
them declare after completing
prerequisite course work.
Just like America has its collectively approved elite colleges,
several universities in China are also
considered extremely prestigious. A few of the elite colleges in
China are: Tsinghua University (清华大
学; Qīnghuá dàxué), Peking University (北京大学; Běijīng dàxué),
Fudan University (复旦大学; Fùdàn
dàxué), Shanghai Jiao Tong University (上海交通大学; Shànghǎi
jiāotōng dàxué), and Sun Yat-sen
University (孙中山大学; Sūnzhōngshān dàxué)
MAIN CRITICISM OF THE CHINESE EDUCATION SYSTEM
Because of the emphasis that China’s education system places
on tests and exams, the system itself
has come under �re for being “brutal” and also producing
“robot students” instead of “learners.”
Proponents of the Western education style argue that classes in
the arts and physical education
(something many Chinese institutions lack) help students
achieve a more well-rounded learning
experience.
However, the other side argues that the education system works
for the country it was built for. A
nationwide standardized curriculum may be the best way to
provide 1 billion people with a decent
education, while providing equal opportunity.
th.
17. 2018/5/4 Chinese Education System VS. U.S Education System
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us-education-system 4/9
Is there anything else about China’s education system that you
found intriguing? Or, on the other end
of the spectrum, is there anything about it that you just can’t
wrap your head around?
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ZANDER FIELD 2016/6/6 下午10:52:56
I am very impressed. The US needs more structure.
Reply to Zander Field
ABC 123 2016/12/22 下午2:35:31
Common Core seeks to provide that structure. Liberals aren't all
that bad!
MONIQUE VANKERCKHOVEN 2016/6/18 上午7:33:52
I like the Chinese system most. This is where my son, aged 19,
�nally started really studying, because
of the system of constant test, either you loose face, either you
study. From a quite lazy European
ANGELA FANG
Angela Fang is a contributing writer at TutorMing. Born in New
Jersey, she decided to go to University
18. of California, Berkeley, to get her degrees in Economics and
Math. In her free time, she enjoys
napping, sur�ng the Internet, and playing the violin. Corgis are
her spirit animal.
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19. Chinese vs. Western Parenting
browse
Over the weekend a piece appeared in the Wall Street Journal
by Amy Chua about the virtues of Chinese parenting versus
Western
parenting, excerpted from Chua's book Battle Hymn of the Tiger
Mother. "Chinese" is not meant to refer to just that ethnicity --
rather, it
describes the type of person who follows it (there are mothers
of Chinese heritage who don't follow Chinese parenting
methods, and Western
moms who do).
Chinese mothers are extremely strict and expect nothing but the
best from their children -- and they let them know it, in no
uncertain terms.
For example, here's a list of things Chua's children were not
allowed to do, from her article:
Over the weekend a piece appeared in the Wall Street Journal
by Amy Chua about the virtues of Chinese parenting versus
Western parenting,
excerpted from Chua's book Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother.
"Chinese" is not meant to refer to just that ethnicity -- rather, it
describes the type of
person who follows it (there are mothers of Chinese heritage
who don't follow Chinese parenting methods, and Western
moms who do).
20. Chinese mothers are extremely strict and expect nothing but the
best from their children -- and they let them know it, in no
uncertain terms. For
example, here's a list of things Chua's children were not allowed
to do, from her article:
attend a sleepover
have a playdate
be in a school play
complain about not being in a school play
watch TV or play computer games
choose their own extracurricular activities
get any grade less than an A
not be the No. 1 student in every subject except gym and drama
play any instrument other than the piano or violin
not play the piano or violin
Chua also describes a scene in which she tells her then-7-year-
old daughter Lulu to stop being "lazy, cowardly, self-indulgent
and pathetic" when Lulu
failed to master a tricky piano piece. This scene epitomizes
Chua's description of Chinese parenting: heavy importance on
rote repetition, settling for
nothing less than perfection, and no qualms over pulling out
every "weapon and tactic" to get it. When her Western husband
Jed pulled her aside and
asked her stop insulting Lulu, Chua wrote that she wasn't -- she
21. was "just motivating her." In the end, though, the child got it
down pat and performed it
successfully at a recital.
PHOTO COURTESY OF PENGUIN PRESS
By Kate Goodin
https://www.parenting.com/
https://www.parenting.com/parenting-advice
https://www.parenting.com/parenting-advice/tips-tricks
mailto:?subject=%20Chinese%20vs.%20Western%20Parenting&
body=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.parenting.com%2Fblogs%2Fshow
-and-tell%2Fkate-parentingcom%2Fchinese-vs-western-
parenting
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704111504576
059713528698754.html
http://www.amazon.com/Battle-Hymn-Tiger-Mother-
Chua/dp/1594202842
https://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405274870411150457
6059713528698754.html
https://www.amazon.com/Battle-Hymn-Tiger-Mother-
Chua/dp/1594202842
https://www.parenting.com/sites/parenting.com/files/styles/stor
y_detail_enlarge/public/ChuaBookCover_0.jpg?itok=wWfbbIJF
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you might like
22. successfully at a recital.
In high school, I had a friend who had a Chinese parent. She'd
tell me how her mother would call her ugly, or stupid if she got
an A minus. I couldn't
understand that, based on my own Western mother, who always
told me how smart and pretty I was. And I couldn’t tell if my
friend was upset by what
her mother said, or if she viewed it in a more matter-of-fact
way. But we were both top students. Both went on to good
colleges. And we were both
brought up under very different parenting styles.
This gives much food for thought on what's probably one of our
society's most provocative topic: How parents raise their
children. Whose happiness
matters. What happiness even means. What's best for children.
Who can choose what’s best. It's one of Chua's final lines from
her excerpt that sums it
up best: "Many Chinese secretly believe that they care more
about their children and are willing to sacrifice much more for
them than Westerners, who
seem perfectly content to let their children turn out badly. I
think it's a misunderstanding on both sides. All decent parents
want to do what's best for
their children. The Chinese just have a totally different idea of
how to do that." Even if you don't agree with Chua's parenting,
her article is a truly
thought-provoking read and provides a real window into how
other parents think.
Chua also appeared on the Today Show to defend her article.
She admits there are moments that she’s not proud of, but said
23. that if she had to do it all
over again, she’d do it mostly the same with small adjustments.
She also expands on the philosophy of Chinese parenting, which
gives context to her
book excerpt:
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How do you feel about Chinese versus Western parenting? Do
you follow a certain style?
Vote here: Do you agree with Amy Chua's strict parenting?
Plus: Read blogger Denene Millner's take on Chua's philosophy.
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agree-with-the-tiger-moms-strict-parenting
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“C all me garbage.”
The other day, I was having dinner with my family when the
subject of Amy Chua’s
new book, “Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother” (Penguin Press;
$25.95), came up.
My twelve-year-old twins had been read an excerpt from the
book by their teacher, a
well-known provocateur. He had been sent a link to the excerpt
by another teacher,
who had received it from her sister, who had been e-mailed it by
a friend, and, well,
you get the point. The excerpt, which had appeared in the Wall
Street Journal under
the headline “��� ������� ������� ���
��������,” was, and still is, an Internet
sensation—as one blogger put it, the “Andromeda Strain of viral
memes.” Within
days, more than ve thousand comments had been posted, and
“Tiger Mother”
vaulted to No. 4 on Amazon’s list of best-sellers. Chua
appeared on NPR’s “All
Things Considered” and on NBC’s “Nightly News” and “Today”
show. Her book
was the topic of two columns in last week’s Sunday Times, and,
under the racially
neutral headline “�� ������� ���������
���������?,” the subject of a formal
debate on the paper’s Web site.
Thanks to this media blitz, the basic outlines of “Tiger
34. Mother”’s story are by now
familiar. Chua, the daughter of Chinese immigrants, is a Yale
Law School professor.
She is married to another Yale law professor and has two
daughters, whom she
drives relentlessly. Chua’s rules for the girls include: no
sleepovers, no playdates, no
grade lower than an A on report cards, no choosing your own
extracurricular
activities, and no ranking lower than No. 1 in any subject. (An
exception to this last
directive is made for gym and drama.)
In Chua’s binary world, there are just two kinds of mother.
There are “Chinese
mothers,” who, she allows, do not necessarily have to be
Chinese. “I’m using the
term ‘Chinese mothers’ loosely,” she writes. Then, there are
“Western” mothers.
Western mothers think they are being strict when they insist
that their children
practice their instruments for half an hour a day. For Chinese
mothers, “the rst
Books January 31, 2011 Issue
America’s Top Parent
What’s behind the“Tiger Mother” craze?
By Elizabeth Kolbert
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/books
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2011/01/31
https://www.newyorker.com/contributors/elizabeth-kolbert
https://www.newyorker.com/
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I
hour is the easy part.” Chua chooses the instruments that her
daughters will play—
piano for the older one, Sophia; violin for the younger, Lulu—
and stands over them
as they practice for three, four, sometimes ve hours at a stretch.
The least the girls
are expected to do is make it to Carnegie Hall. Amazingly
enough, Sophia does.
Chua’s daughters are so successful—once, it’s true, Sophia
came in second on a
multiplication test (to a Korean boy), but Chua made sure this
never happened again
—that they con rm her thesis: Western mothers are losers. I’m
using the term
“losers” loosely.
Chua has said that one of the points of the book is “making fun
of myself,” but
plainly what she was hoping for was to outrage. Whole chapters
of “Tiger
Mother”—admittedly, many chapters are only four or ve pages
long—are given
over to incidents like that of the rejected smiley face.
“I don’t want this,” she tells Lulu, throwing back at her a
handmade birthday card. “I
want a better one.”
36. In another chapter, Chua threatens to take Lulu’s doll house to
the Salvation Army
and, when that doesn’t work, to deny her lunch, dinner, and
birthday parties for “two,
three, four years” because she cannot master a piece called “The
Little White
Donkey.” The kid is seven years old. In a third chapter, Chua
tells Sophia she is
“garbage.” Chua’s own father has called her “garbage,” and she
nds it a highly
effective parenting technique. Chua relates this at a dinner
party, and one of the
guests supposedly gets so upset that she breaks down in tears.
The hostess tries to
patch things up by suggesting that Chua is speaking guratively.
“You didn’t actually call Sophia garbage,” the hostess offers.
“Yes, I did,” Chua says.
When the dinner-party episode was read in class, my sons found
it hilarious, which
is why they were taunting me. “Call me garbage,” one of the
twins said again. “I dare
you.”
“O.K.,” I said, trying, for once, to be a good mother. “You’re
garbage.”
f Chua’s tale has any signi cance—and it may not—it is as an
allegory. Chua
refers to herself as a Tiger because according to the Chinese
zodiac she was born
in the Year of the Tiger. Tiger people are “powerful,
37. authoritative, and magnetic,” she
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informs us, just as tigers that walk on four legs inspire “fear
and respect.” The “tiger
economies” of Asia aren’t mentioned in the book, but they
growl menacingly in the
background.
It’s just about impossible to pick up a newspaper these days—
though who actually
picks up a newspaper anymore?—without nding a story about
the rise of the East.
The headlines are variations on a theme: “����� �����
����� ����� ���� ��
�����”; “����� ������� ����-����
�������� ���� �.�.”; “��� ������� 5,000
������� ����; ������ ���� �� �����.” What
began as an out ow of
manufacturing jobs has spread way beyond car parts and
electronics to include
information technology, legal advice, even journalism. (This
piece could have been
written much more cost-effectively by a team in Bangalore and,
who knows, maybe
next month it will be.)
On our good days, we tell ourselves that our kids will be all
right. The new, global
38. economy, we observe, puts a premium on exibility and
creativity. And who is better
prepared for such a future than little Abby (or Zachary),
downloading her wacky
videos onto YouTube while she texts her friends, messes with
Photoshop, and listens
to her iPod?
“Yes, you can brute-force any kid to learn to play the piano—
just precisely like his or
her billion neighbors” is how one of the comments on the Wall
Street Journal ’s Web
site put it. “But you’ll never get a Jimi Hendrix that way.”
On our bad days, we wonder whether this way of thinking is, as
Chua might say,
garbage. Last month, the results of the most recent Programme
for International
Student Assessment, or ����, tests were announced. It was
the rst time that
Chinese students had participated, and children from Shanghai
ranked rst in every
single area. Students from the United States, meanwhile, came
in seventeenth in
reading, twenty-third in science, and an especially demoralizing
thirty- rst in math.
This last ranking put American kids not just behind the Chinese,
the Koreans, and
the Singaporeans but also after the French, the Austrians, the
Hungarians, the
Slovenians, the Estonians, and the Poles.
“I know skeptics will want to argue with the results, but we
consider them to be
accurate and reliable,” Arne Duncan, the U.S. Secretary of
Education, told the
39. Times. “The United States came in twenty-third or twenty-
fourth in most subjects.
We can quibble, or we can face the brutal truth that we’re being
out-educated.”
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I
Why is this? How is it that the richest country in the world
can’t teach kids to read
or to multiply fractions? Taken as a parable, Chua’s cartoonish
narrative about
browbeating her daughters acquires a certain disquieting force.
Americans have been
told always to encourage their kids. This, the theory goes, will
improve their self-
esteem, and this, in turn, will help them learn.
After a generation or so of applying this theory, we have the
results. Just about the
only category in which American students outperform the
competition is self-
regard. Researchers at the Brookings Institution, in one of their
frequent studies of
education policy, compared students’ assessments of their
abilities in math with their
scores on a standardized test. Nearly forty per cent of American
eighth graders
agreed “a lot” with the statement “I usually do well in
40. mathematics,” even though
only seven per cent of American students actually got enough
correct answers on the
test to qualify as advanced. Among Singaporean students,
eighteen per cent said
they usually did well in math; forty-four per cent quali ed as
advanced. As the
Brookings researchers pointed out, even the least self-con dent
Singaporean
students, on average, outscored the most self-con dent
Americans. You can say it’s
sad that kids in Singapore are so beaten down that they can’t
appreciate their own
accomplishments. But you’ve got to give them this: at least they
get the math right.
Our problems as a country cannot, of course, be reduced to our
problems as
educators or as parents. Nonetheless, there is an uncomfortable
analogy. For some
time now, the U.S. has, in effect, been drawing crappy, smiley-
face birthday cards and
calling them wonderful. It’s made us feel a bit better about
ourselves without
improving the basic situation. As the cover story on China’s
ascent in this month’s
Foreign Policy sums things up: “American Decline: This Time
It’s Real.”
t’s hard to believe that Chua’s book would be causing quite as
much stir without
the geopolitical subtext. (Picture the reaction to a similar tale
told by a
Hungarian or an Austrian über-mom.) At the same time, lots of
people have clearly
41. taken “Tiger Mother” personally.
Of the zillions of comments that have been posted on the Web,
many of the most
passionate are from scandalized “Western” mothers and fathers,
or, as one blogger
dubbed them, “Manatee dads.” Some have gone as far as to
suggest that Chua be
arrested for child abuse. At least as emotional are the posts
from Asians and Asian-
Americans.
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“Parents like Amy Chua are the reason why Asian-Americans
like me are in
therapy,” Betty Ming Liu, who teaches journalism at N.Y.U.,
wrote on her blog.
“What’s even more damning is her perpetuation of the media
stereotypes of Asian-
Americans,” Frank Chi, a political consultant, wrote in the
Boston Globe’s opinion
blog.
“Having lived through a version of the Chinese Parenting
Experience, and having
been surrounded since birth with hundreds of CPE graduates, I
couldn’t not say
something,” a contributor to the Web site Shanghaiist wrote
42. after the Wall Street
Journal excerpt appeared. “The article actually made me feel
physically ill.”
Chua’s response to some of the unkind things said about her—
she has reported
getting death threats—has been to backpedal. “������� ��
��� ‘����� ������’ ”
was the headline of one Times article. (It, too, quickly jumped
to the top of the
paper’s “most e-mailed” list.) Chua has said that it was not her
plan to write a
parenting manual: “My actual book is not a how-to guide.”
Somehow or other, her
publisher seems to be among those who missed this. The back
cover spells out, in
black and red type, “How to Be a Tiger Mother.”
According to Chua, her “actual book” is a memoir. Memoir is,
or at least is supposed
to be, a demanding genre. It requires that the author not just
narrate his or her life
but re ect on it. By her own description, Chua is not a probing
person. Of her years
studying at Harvard Law School, she writes:
I didn’t care about the rights of
criminals the way others did, and I
froze whenever a professor called
on me. I also wasn’t naturally
skeptical and questioning; I just
43. wanted to write down everything
the professor said and memorize it.
“Battle Hymn of the Tiger
Mother” exhibits much the same
lack of interest in critical thinking.
It’s breezily written, at times
entertaining, and devoid of
anything approaching
introspection. Imagine your most
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self-congratulatory friend holding
forth for two hours about her kids’
triumphs, and you’ve more or less
got the narrative. The only thing
that keeps it together is Chua’s
44. cheerful faith that whatever
happened to her or her daughters
is interesting just because it
happened to happen to them. In
addition to all the schlepping back
and forth to auditions, there are
two chapters on Chua’s dogs
(Samoyeds named Coco and
Pushkin), three pages of practice
notes that she left behind for Lulu
when she could not be there to
berate her in person, and a
complete list of the places that she
had visited with her kids by the
time they were twelve and nine:
London, Paris, Nice, Rome,
Venice, Milan, Amsterdam, The
Hague, Barcelona, Madrid,
45. Málaga, Liechtenstein, Monaco,
Munich, Dublin, Brussels, Bruges,
Strasbourg, Beijing, Shanghai,
Tokyo, Hong Kong, Manila,
Istanbul, Mexico City, Cancún,
Buenos Aires, Santiago, Rio de
Janeiro, São Paulo, La Paz, Sucre,
Cochabamba, Jamaica, Tangier,
Fez, Johannesburg, Cape Town,
and the Rock of Gibraltar.
Chua’s husband is not Chinese, in either sense of the word. He
makes occasional
appearances in the book to try—ineffectually, it seems—to
shield the girls. Chua has
said that she wrote more about their arguments, but her husband
didn’t like those
passages, so they’ve been cut. Perhaps had more of his voice
been included it would
have provided some grit and at least the semblance of
engagement. As it is, though,
2018/5/4 The Tiger Mother, America’s Top Parent | The New
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top-parent 7/8
it’s just her. “I’m happy to be the one hated,” she tells her
husband at one point, and
apparently she means it.
Parenting is hard. As anyone who has gone through the process
and had enough
leisure (and still functioning brain cells) to re ect on it knows, a
lot of it is a
crapshoot. Things go wrong that you have no control over, and,
on occasion, things
also go right, and you have no control over those, either. The
experience is scary and
exhilarating and often humiliating, not because you’re
disappointed in your kids,
necessarily, but because you’re disappointed in yourself.
Some things do go wrong in Chua’s memoir. Her mother-in-law
dies; her younger
sister develops leukemia. These events get roughly the same
amount of space as
Coco and Pushkin, and yet they are, on their own terms,
moving. More central to
the story line is a screaming t in a Moscow restaurant during
which a glass is
thrown. The upshot of the crisis is that Lulu is allowed to take
up tennis, which
Chua then proceeds to micromanage.
Chua clearly wants to end her book by claiming that she has
changed. She knows
enough about the conventions of memoir-writing to understand
that some kind of
transformation is generally required. But she can’t bring herself
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Observer Review: Books: SELF-HELP: The iron-
fisted guide to successful parenting - Chinese
style: Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother Amy Chua
Bloomsbury pounds 16.99, pp256
Sun, Shuyun . The Observer ; London (UK) [London (UK)]30
Jan 2011: 44.
ProQuest 文档链接
(ABSTRACT)
"A menace to society", "an inhuman mother", or "a simply
arrogant and insensitive show-off": to judge by the flurry
of hostile reaction, Amy Chua's book has hit a nerve. Her
daughters are straight-A students and music prodigies,
with the older daughter playing at Carnegie Hall at 14.
Anything less would be a disgrace to the Tiger Mother.
49. Chua's Chinese parenting backfired when her younger daughter
Lulu cracked under her mother's non-stop
pressure. She simply refused to obey, a huge crime for Chinese
kids. Worse, she openly challenged her mother in
public, screaming: "I don't want to be Chinese. Why can't you
get that through your head? I hate the violin. I hate
my life. I hate you, and I hate this family!" Chua did not mind
her daughters hating her; as she constantly reminds
them, her job is "to prepare you for the future - not to make you
like me". Still, her defeat made her pause and take a
step back.
"The truth is I'm not good at enjoying life. It's not one of my
strengths," Chua confesses. "Happiness is not a
concept I tend to dwell on." Perhaps her daughters, and
especially her husband, Jed, could teach her a thing or two.
Successful, fun-loving, and sensitive to the moods and feelings
of their daughters, but also tolerant of Chua's
abusive regime, Jed comes across as the saint who provides the
much-needed balance for the children and brings
his wife back from her moments of sheer madness.
"A menace to society", "an inhuman mother", or "a simply
arrogant and insensitive show-off": to judge by the flurry
50. of hostile reaction, Amy Chua's book has hit a nerve. Her
daughters are straight-A students and music prodigies,
with the older daughter playing at Carnegie Hall at 14.
Anything less would be a disgrace to the Tiger Mother.
It's a familiar story. Chinese students do better in school than
other nationalities, just about everywhere. This is
not, of course, because we are innately cleverer than other
people; we just work much, much harder. This is clear
from the oppressively strict regime that Chua describes. She
finds it strange that western parents cannot
comprehend why her daughters should be required to devote
every single afternoon, 365 days a year, to homework
and music practice, with no sleepovers, no playdates, no TV or
computer games. And when they refuse to obey her,
she makes them stand in the freezing cold, or threatens to give
their toys to the Salvation Army.
I remember my own upbringing in the city of Handan, in central
China. Apart from seven hours' sleep, all my waking
moments were consumed by study - I did not even come to the
table until my food was lukewarm, so I could gulp it
down quickly and get back to work. It paid off: I came high
enough in the National Exam to get a place at Beijing
University, the best in China.
51. But Chua's Chinese parenting backfired when her younger
daughter Lulu cracked under her mother's non-stop
pressure. She simply refused to obey, a huge crime for Chinese
kids. Worse, she openly challenged her mother in
public, screaming: "I don't want to be Chinese. Why can't you
get that through your head? I hate the violin. I hate
my life. I hate you, and I hate this family!" Chua did not mind
her daughters hating her; as she constantly reminds
them, her job is "to prepare you for the future - not to make you
like me". Still, her defeat made her pause and take a
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step back.
Does she have regrets? She admits that she had moments of
self-doubt, as when she suddenly felt a pang for
Sophia, running home from school with an armful of books to
have time for piano practice. But they were rare, and
only moments. That was how Chua was brought up, and she was
a great success - getting into Yale Law School
and becoming a professor there, with a clever and loving
husband and two equally clever children. She simply
cannot understand what was wrong. But then, as Chua admits
52. herself, she rarely reflects. She sets the goals and
goes for them: she even believed Coco, the family dog, had
hidden talents and should be pushed to excel as a
show dog - even if she eventually concluded that it was
"perfectly fine for most dogs not to have a profession".
Chua's book would have benefited from more reflection. She
says she does not know why she adopted the
approach she did- it is just what Chinese families do. In fact, it
goes back to the 2,500-year-old Confucian belief
that education is superior and all else is inferior. For over a
millennium, Chinese emperors chose officials to run
China, from the county clerk to prime minister, out of the
successful candidates in the imperial exam. Doing well
would change your life and that of your family.
Chua is tough with her children because, like many Chinese
people, she thinks of childhood as an investment - the
most crucial one. But if we are indeed successful, are we
happy? Tens of millions of children in China do nothing
but study, and have extremely limited social, emotional and
practical skills. On the first day of university,
thousands of parents turn up with their quilts; they sleep in the
gym, so they can help their 18-year-olds with the
difficult tasks of signing up for their courses, acquiring their
food coupons, even making their beds.
53. "The truth is I'm not good at enjoying life. It's not one of my
strengths," Chua confesses. "Happiness is not a
concept I tend to dwell on." Perhaps her daughters, and
especially her husband, Jed, could teach her a thing or two.
Successful, fun-loving, and sensitive to the moods and feelings
of their daughters, but also tolerant of Chua's
abusive regime, Jed comes across as the saint who provides the
much-needed balance for the children and brings
his wife back from her moments of sheer madness.
In helping to start a debate about what is good and what is
missing in both Chinese and western parenting, this
book has already served a purpose its author probably did not
intend. Chua hammers western parenting, but she
could learn from it too. And if she knew her Confucius, she
would know that moderation in all things is the essence
of Chinese culture. Sun Shuyun
Sun Shuyun is the author of A Year in Tibet (HarperPress). To
buy Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother for pounds
13.59 with free UK p&p call 0330 333 6847 or go to
guardianbookshop.co.uk
Credit: Sun Shuyun
Illustration
54. Caption: Captions: A Chinese baby about to talke part in a
swimming contest. AFP
: Chua, Amy
: Observer Review: Books: SELF-HELP: The iron-fisted guide
to successful parenting -
Chinese style: Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother Amy Chua
Bloomsbury pounds 16.99,
pp256
: Sun, Shuyun
: The Observer; London (UK)
: 44
条款与条件 联系 ProQuest
: 2011
: Jan 30, 2011
: Observer Review Books Pages
55. : Guardian News &Media Limited
: London (UK)
/: United Kingdom, London (UK)
: General Interest Periodicals--Great Britain
ISSN: 00297712
: Newspapers
: English
: News
ProQuest ID: 848450747
URL:
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450747?accountid=11999
: (Copyright , Guardian Newspapers Limited, Jan 30, 2011)
: 2011-01-31
: ProQuest Central
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Review: Books: SELF-HELP: The iron-fisted guide to
successful parenting - Chinese style: Battle Hymn of the Tiger
Mother Amy Chua Bloomsbury pounds 16.99, pp256
56. Review: Paperbacks: Non-fiction: Battle Hymn of
the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua (Bloomsbury,
pounds 7.99)
Segal, Victoria . The Guardian ; London (UK) [London (UK)]18
Feb 2012: 19.
ProQuest 文档链接
(ABSTRACT)
The springboard for a million anguished articles about "what it
really means" to be a modern parent, Chua's memoir
isn't quite the work of the brood-devouring monster the media
storm suggested.
The springboard for a million anguished articles about "what it
really means" to be a modern parent, Chua's memoir
isn't quite the work of the brood-devouring monster the media
storm suggested. From the starting list of things her
daughters were never allowed to do - including "not be the #1
student in every subject except gym and drama" - the
manically over-achieving Yale law professor knowingly sets
herself up for a fall. Comparing the insanely strict,
results-fixated methods of traditional "Chinese" parenting to a
57. "western" model that simpers "good work, buddy"
every time a child eats some Play-doh, the book deals in
extremes, but between Chua's battle lines lies a strong
case for the middle ground. Despite the explosive backfiring of
her methods, her daughters' successes might leave
the CBeebies-dependent parent thinking they could push their
children harder. Everybody muddles through, goes
the parenting truism: it may not look like it, but even with her
resources of time, money and to-do lists, Chua has
done exactly the same.
Credit: Victoria Segal
: Review: Paperbacks: Non-fiction: Battle Hymn of the Tiger
Mother by Amy Chua
(Bloomsbury, pounds 7.99)
: Segal, Victoria
: The Guardian; London (UK)
: 19
: 2012
: Feb 18, 2012
58. : Guardian Review Pages
http://dbproxy.lasalle.edu:2048/login?url=https://search.proques
t.com/docview/922056436?accountid=11999
http://dbproxy.lasalle.edu:2048/login?url=https://search.proques
t.com/docview/922056436?accountid=11999
条款与条件 联系 ProQuest
: Guardian News &Media Limited
: London (UK)
/: United Kingdom, London (UK)
: Literary And Political Reviews, General Interest Periodicals--
Great Britain
ISSN: 02613077
: Newspapers
: English
: News
ProQuest ID: 922056436
URL:
http://dbproxy.lasalle.edu:2048/login?url=https://search.proques
t.com/docview/922
59. 056436?accountid=11999
: (Copyright , Guardian Newspapers Limited, Feb 18, 2012)
: 2017-11-19
: ProQuest Central
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http://www.proquest.com/go/pqissupportcontactReview:
Paperbacks: Non-fiction: Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by
Amy Chua (Bloomsbury, pounds 7.99)
2018/5/4 Comparing American and Chinese Parents
https://learningenglish.voanews.com/a/comparing-american-
and-chinese-parents-116355614/113764.html 1/3
EDUCATION REPORT
Comparing American and Chinese Parents
February 16, 2011
Or download MP3 (Right-click or option-click and save link)
�is is the VOA Special English Education Report.
Some American parents might think their children need better
educations to compete
with China and other countries. But how much do the parents
themselves need to change?
A new book called "Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother" by Amy
Chua has caused a debate
60. about cultural di�erences in parenting. Ms. Chua is a professor
at the Yale Law School in
New Haven, Connecticut, and the mother of two daughters. She
was raised in the
American Midwest by immigrant Chinese parents.
In the Chinese culture, the tiger represents strength and power.
In her book, Ms. Chua
writes about how she demanded excellence from her daughters.
For example, she
threatened to burn her daughter's stu�ed animals unless she
played a piece of music
perfectly. She would insult her daughters if they failed to meet
her expectations.
Ms. Chua told NBC television that she had a clear list of what
her daughters, Sophia and
Louisa, were not permitted to do.
AMY CHUA: "Attend a sleepover, have a play date, watch TV
or play computer games, be in
a school play, get any grade less than an A."
Many people have criticized Amy Chua. Some say her parenting
methods were abusive.
She even admits that her husband, who is not Chinese,
sometimes objected to her
parenting style. But she says that was the way her parents raised
her and her three sisters.
Ms. Chua makes fun of her own extreme style of parenting. She
says she eased some of the
pressure a�er her younger daughter rebelled and shouted "I hate
my life! I hate you!"
https://learningenglish.voanews.com/z/1007
61. http://www.voanews.com/MediaAssets2/learningenglish/dalet/se
-ed-tiger-mother-17feb11.Mp3
2018/5/4 Comparing American and Chinese Parents
https://learningenglish.voanews.com/a/comparing-american-
and-chinese-parents-116355614/113764.html 2/3
Ms. Chua says she decided to retreat when it seemed like there
was a risk that she might
lose her daughter. But she also says American parents o�en
have low expectations of their
children's abilities.
AMY CHUA: "One of the biggest di�erences I see between
Western and Chinese parents is
that Chinese parents assume strength rather than fragility."
Stacy DeBro� has written four books on parenting.
STACY DEBROFF: "�e stirring of this intense debate has to do
with what does it mean to
be a successful parent and what does it mean to be a successful
child?"
Ms. DeBro� says Amy Chua's parenting style is not limited to
Chinese families. She says it
represents a traditional way of parenting among immigrants
seeking a better future for
their children.
But she also sees a risk. When children have no time to be
social or to follow their own
interests, they might not develop other skills that they need to
succeed in life. Stacey
62. DeBro� advises parents to develop their own style of parenting
and not just repeat the way
they were raised.
And that’s the VOA Special English Education Report. What are
your thoughts about
parenting styles and cultural di�erences? Tell us at
voaspecialenglish.com or on Facebook
at VOA Learning English. I’m Steve Ember.
___
Contributing: Faiza Elmasry and Lawan Davis
2018/5/4 Comparing American and Chinese Parents
https://learningenglish.voanews.com/a/comparing-american-
and-chinese-parents-116355614/113764.html 3/3
![The fact that the U.S. and the Soviet Union had such polar
opposite ideologies made the Americans' fears easy to exploit
by the government, media and the entertainment industry. Their
anxieties were mirrored through U.S. pop culture throughout the
Cold War from the 1950s-1980s. The rapid technological
change that happened during that period was a huge contributor
to these anxious feelings, which I find reflected
misunderstanding and confusion leading to paranoia and a need
to find a scapegoat when something seemed awry. The
development of nuclear weapons as well as the spread of TV as
an integral part of home life brought all the drama and fear
home.
When the US formed the FBI and CIA to protect the
country from security threats, it created a culture of fear and
paranoia.
The West, especially the US, found the Soviet Union a
threat as communism did not have a race or "look" and that
anyone could be communist. This raised fears that it could
spread rapidly and threaten the US way of life. [cite show we
watched with the dad getting thrown in jail when his kids
became communist youth]. The fact that the US and the Soviet
Union had such polar opposite ideologies made the Americans'
fears easy to exploit by news media and the entertainment
industry. The spread of TV as an integral part of home life
brought all the drama home.
(PARANOIA) During the 1950s, McCarthyism had taken the US
by storm after Senator (first name) McCarthy stated that
communists had infiltrated the government. His way of weaving
together fact and fiction convinced people and initiated a
mindset of paranoia and fear. His beliefs led to a massive witch
hunt in which notable people were blacklisted as communists](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/thefactthattheu-221031070230-44e6cba2/85/The-fact-that-the-U-S-and-the-Soviet-Union-had-such-polar-opposit-docx-1-320.jpg)
