As a Chinese American with lenient Chinese parents, I did not know whether or not this was how the majority of Chinese parents acted, or if Chua was an outlier - an extreme case of a strict parent.īefore discovering “Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother,” I read Chua’s essay, “ Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior,” and I knew I wanted to learn more about the educational aspect of Asian culture. When Chua’s fear of her daughters being lazy and unmotivated led her to push them extremely hard, I was conflicted.
Throughout my reading of the book, I often felt like I was peering outside my own fishbowl, meaning peering outside of the Chinese culture I thought I always knew. The “Chinese” teaching methods Chua discusses in her book are meant to encapsulate the general idea of strict teaching methods in different countries. Chua details her own experiences as a tiger mother and adds research about the pros and cons of Eastern and Western parenting styles. Chua is from a Chinese background and in her memoir “ Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother”, s he writes about her “Chinese” parenting methods and how her children behaved in return. “Īuthor Amy Chua defines herself as a tiger mother. While “Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother” focuses more on Chua’s personal life, the book does an excellent job of preparing the reader for that conversation.ĭ defines a tiger mother as “a strict mother, especially an East Asian, who demands academic excellence and obedience from her children. Despite the controversy associated with Chua’s book and the phrase “tiger mother,” there undoubtedly is an important conversation to be had with both students and parents on the subject of academic and cultural expectations. Before then, there existed the “ helicopter parent” and the “ lighthouse parent,” but there never was a term that described the strict and academically oriented parenting style as well as “tiger mother”.
The term “tiger mother” was coined by Amy Chua in her book “ Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother” in 2011.
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