Tiger Mom Journals

Christopher Cabalquinto

Reading Journals

Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior

The writer in the excerpt Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior, Amy Chua, does a great job of justifying Chinese-style parenting by contrasting it to Western-style parenting. She tells her audience that through her strict orders and threats does her daughter, Lulu, succeed in playing and mastering a very difficult piano piece; Western parents with high concerns for their kids’ psyches would only “ask their kids to try their best.” Chua also reveals the generality of Chinese parents constantly working their children by making use of every moment of time possible at any cost, whereas Western parents would give up when their children puts up any form of resistance. Western parents will persuade themselves that they are not disappointed in how their children are. While through the multitude of resolute practices, the children of Chinese parents will develop high quality skills, and unyielding confidence.

Mother Inferior?

The introduction of Mother Inferior by Hanna Rosin contains an excellent anecdote that puts Rosin in a position of defence for her parenting style against Amy Chua’s Chinese-style parenting. The anecdote, which her 2-year-old son calls her a “kitty kat” when she was acting out “tiger,” reveals her position amongst other parents in the standards set by Amy Chua. However, this does not break her as a parent, nor does it cause her to rethink what she does for her kids. Instead, Rosin defends herself by to criticizing “Ms. Chua’s parenting prescription,” and exemplifying her children’s upbringing through “’spontaneity, freedom, discovery, and experience.’”

Amy Chua Is a Wimp

Learning how to work in groups is important, and David Brooks supports this matter in Amy Chua Is a Wimp. He believes that Amy Chua is being protective of her daughters by keeping them from the “most intellectually demanding activities,” which prevents them from learning about how to manage groups. He explains how most people work in groups, and how it is important to be able to manage the social tests of trust, emotions, and attitudes. He also goes on about how these numerous skills cannot develop under constant formal learning. Letting children have their time of playdates and sleepovers will allow them to learn how to handle people apart from kin.

In the Eye of the Tiger

The lack of being able to fully portray one’s self to others can be a very big problem because others may not understand where that person is coming from. Meghan Daum provides examples in In the Eye of the Tiger by addressing a global phenomenon about a Yale professor, Amy Chua, and how she is ostracized for her book, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother. Daum finds that Chua’s incapability as a writer is the reason why she cannot control her provocative tones. While Chua may have been trying to come out as wacky for trying to donate her daughter’s dollhouse, she actually came out as a crazy mother to most. Amy Chua needs to be able to express herself fully in order to get her audience to understand the important points hidden in her writings.

Tiger Mom vs. Tiger Mailroom

The introduction to Patrick Goldstein’s Tiger Mom vs. Tiger Mailroom, is very misleading in my opinion. When reading the entire piece, the topic strays from talking about how all the latest hubbub is about Amy Chua and her extreme parenting for success to how anybody can make it in showbiz. After Amy Chua is introduced at the beginning of the piece, she is no longer of high importance or regard throughout the rest of the article. On top of that, there are others mentioned throughout the article that have nothing to do with Amy Chua, and they are rather mentioned for the film industry. It may have just been a difficult read, but it seems that there is an extremely faint connection between the introduction and the rest of the article.