“Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior”
To the east where the sun rises every morning, we find China. We often see their culture as very different from ours and therefor it seems like their “world” is far more distant then it actually is. We are all human and coexisting on this old planet but it is like their world is from another place in the universe and that separates them from us. In her article “Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior” Amy Chua highlights one of the many differences that shows the cultural barrier between us. She argues about Chinese mothers’ way of raising their children and how very different from the Western upbringing it is.
Very often Westerners wonder why there are so many successful Chinese children and what the parents do to make sure that they become a success. In the article Chua tries to answer the question with her own experiences from her own life. Her parents are academics, she is an academic and her two children are as well.[1] If a Chinese child is going to be successful, there have to be some rules when it comes to their upbringing. For example: They are not allowed to do any extracurricular or social activities after school. They have to be the best and do their best in every class; except PE and drama. It is that simple, but it is hard work. To make it a success it craves repetition and that is what the Westerners underestimates, according to Chua:” Once a child starts to excel at something... he or she gets praise, admiration and satisfaction. This builds confidence and makes the once not-fun activity fun. This in turn makes it easier for the parent to get the child to work even more.” (Page 2, line 50 - 53). What is important in the Chinese upbringing is to build up the child’s confidence because it helps making the not-fun activities fun.
The new confidence allows the children's parents to get away with “things” that Western parents could not. When a Chinese child do something wrong or disrespectful, these “things” could be