Dear Mrs. Amy Chua, As an experienced (seasoned) mother of four, having recently read an excerpt from your book “Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother” I unconditionally disagree with your perspective on this idea. Your ideal parenting method is unacceptable as it damages self-esteem, confidence, and creativity. It truly scares me to think that the content of your article may persuade amateur parents to mimic you and your “tactics”, which would be an absolutely tragic plummet in parenting standards, sending us back to the 1900s. I understand that you believe that the best way to raise a child is through an intense regimen consisting of limited leisure and long hours of study. However, you must recognize that there is much more to childhood than this.
There daughters were always ashamed of and resented their mothers, especially while they were young. The daughters felt this way because of the way their mothers raised them. The mothers were very hard on their daughters, and pushed them towards successful, sometimes causing their daughter to feel overwhelmed. The mothers wanted their daughters to keep their Chinese heritage and culture, but also take advantage of the opportunities they have in America. The daughters were often ashamed of their Chinese heritage, and the way that their mothers acted.
Misconceptions in America The United States has always been a symbol of freedom and prosperity since its conception in 1776. This freedom, however, has only fairly recently included groups of people of different races , religions, and sexes. The inclusions of these groups have not always been welcomed with open arms. In the novel Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua, Chua explores the wonders of motherhood while discovering the misconceptions of American parenting.
Zijian Liu 110424163 Amy is a good mother A lot of criticism points to Amy Chua and her “tiger” parenting after her book Battle Hymn of The Tiger Mother was published. These criticisms come from people in different cultures, some even from China, and mostly focus on Amy’s strict attitude and dominant control in her parenting. According to the book, Amy made many strict rules for her daughters, Sophia and Louisa (Lulu), and forced them to practice musical instruments many hours a day. In her book, Amy explains many ideas of her Chinese parenting in simple words and compares them to Western parenting, but many people cannot accept her ideas and consider such a parenting is harmful for children.
Amy Chua’s Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother is a memoir full of thoughts and memories and contains a very complex style of writing that provokes important questions about the construction of culture, controversy, and identity. Her style of writing captures the reader's attention that the readers are able to come up with their own point of view about the controversies that have been mentioned throughout the book itself. This book is about an asian mother, Amy herself, who parented her children, Sophia and Louisa (Lulu), in the traditional East Asian culture way, following her own parent’s footsteps. However, as she shared her parenting skills in her story, it became a worldly topic that has created controversies among the different viewpoints
This is the classic story between parent and child in Amy Tan’s “Two Kinds.” The theme of this story revolves around a mother who wants nothing but the best for her daughter. Mrs. Woo, the mother of Jing-mei, is a struggling immigrant who had lost everything in China and believes in the American dream by stating, "My mother believed you could be anything you wanted to be in America” (639). She puts Jing-mei into various activities to figure out what she could be good at.
American lawyer and author, Amy Chua in her essay, “Why Chinese Mothers are Superior”, compares and contrast the stereotypical success of Chinese children versus the children of Western. 70% of Western mothers said that “stressing academic success is not good for children”, while roughly 0% of the Chinese mothers felt the same way. Chua’s purpose is to the point that Chinese children repay their parents by obeying them and making them proud, but Western parents don’t have the same view of children being permanently indebted to their parents. She adopts a formal tone in order to explain Chinese children’s success, in her intended audience, Chinese parents. Chua achieves her purpose through the use of anecdote and selection of details.
In “Two Kinds”, Amy Tan uses visual imagery to reveal the true tension in of mother-daughter relationships, when parents push their children to their limits, they truly want the best for them to succeed and have no regrets about what they did or did not do in their childhood years. All relationships have their ups and downs, however parent and child relationships have some of the toughest challenges when it comes to pushing their child to be the best they can. Jing Mei and her mother have a hard altercation with one another when Jing Mei cries in frustration about her future and her mother “shouted. “Only ask you be your best. For you sake.
As a side note, it is important to realize that college to the Chinese community is essential; in order to create honor within your family, you must pass a series of intensive testing and attend university. Unfortunately, for Joy Zhou, the odds were stacked against her, and she was unable to meet the passing requirement. She immediately breaks into a series of ethos driven statements saying, “I failed my parents and myself. After that, I lost all confidence in myself.” In such a dark and devastated mindset, pulling together all the strength left in her heart, Zhou embarks on a journey to America with her mind set on opportunity.
Kieu Tran’s solemn tone reflects on the hardships that Americanization has caused Asians through the context of “the stereotype that Asian parents always hit their children” and how “Western culture and customs have destroyed the Vietnamese family structure”. Tran expresses how Americanization has given asian children more freedom, but in turn it has devastated the structure of a close-knit family. The U.S. is the land of the free, where people are protected by the law, and hitting your children is unjust. However, in asian culture, it is natural for a child to be reprimanded through spanking, hitting, or other forms of punishment. It ensures that children of asian parents will try their best to not make the same mistake again.
Tasks in the family were divided along gender lines. Margaret’s father would work outside the home and would act as the head of the family. He would be in charge of money and supporting the family. Meanwhile, her mother was in charge of household chores. This dominance that males possess is common among Asian families.
As many Chinese-Americans grew up in the 1960’s, one women described it best in her multiple literary works. Bestselling, Chinse-American writer, Amy Tan in her autobiographic essay, “Fish Cheeks”, illustrates her humiliating experience at a Christmas Eve dinner at the age of fourteen. Tan’s purpose is to interpret the idea of how her mother cared for Tan deeply and wanted her to be proud of her Chinese heritage and family. She adopts a nostalgic tone in order to engage relatable thoughts and feelings in her adult readers. Even decades after the essay had been written, readers can still relate to the embarrassing situation that Tan had to face.
I have no qualms telling others that I was left on the side of a dirt road as a newborn baby. For many in the United States, the image is appalling. However, for most adopted Chinese-Americans it’s a harsh reality. Growing up I had the disadvantage of balancing between two cultures: the one I was born into, and the one I grew up in.
The article “Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior” was written in 2011 by Amy Chua, who is a professor at Yale Law School in the United States of America. The article follows significant themes such as the upbringing of children and perfectionism. In the article, the author, Amy Chua, explains the differences between the upbringing of children by respectively Chinese parents and Western parents.
An excerpt taken from “Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mom” goes into detail about Chau’s strong, and mostly controversial, opinions on how one should raise a kid. Chau has only two philosophies