The ‘Tiger Mother’ Debate: Are Chinese Moms Really So Different?

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Amy Chua, an author and professor at Yale Law School can all but add another identity to her bio, after her controversial essay on child-rearing methods came out in the Wall Street Journal last week: “one of the most talked-about mothers in the world.”

In fact, reports TIME’s Emily Rauhala, the essay, “Why Chinese Mothers are Superior,” has had over one million hits and readers are weighing in about her unconventional methods:

Her kids, Louisa and Sophia, were never allowed to have playdates, watch TV, or get anything less than an ‘A’ in school. They played instruments of her choosing (piano, violin) and practiced for hours under close watch. If they resisted, she pounced: In one scene she calls her daughter “garbage,” in another “pathetic.”

Strict parenting or a little close to bullying? Rauhala addresses the larger question: does Chua really represent Chinese moms? And are criticisms of her methods tantamount to cultural misunderstanding?

Read on here.