Analysis Of Amy Chua's Upbringing

According to the Cambridge Dictionary the word ‘upbringing’ is defined as the way in which you are treated and educated when young, especially by your parents, and particularly in relation to the effect that this has on how you behave and make moral decisions. Certainly, this treatment and education is not the same for all children, and there are dominating differences, such as religion and nationality, which have recently been under heavy discussion in relation to the mental and social health of children who are brought up under these circumstances. Amy Chua, a self-proclaimed stereotypical Chinese mother claims in the 2011 Wall Street Journal, “Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior”, that the Chinese upbringing is the best way to create healthy,

Chua starts of the journal with a list of things her daughters were never allowed to do, which includes “be in a school play” followed by “complain about not being in a school play” (p. 6, ll. 11-13). This opens her article with a sense of humour and creates a slightly lighter air around the otherwise quite heavy topic. Later in the article she writes “Once when I was young – maybe more than once – when I was extremely disrespectful to my mother, my father angrily called me “garbage” in our native Hokkien dialect. It worked really well. I felt terrible and deeply ashamed of what I had done.” (p. 7, ll. 54-57) Using the word ”garbage” to promote respect is very atypical in Western society, so this narrative of her childhood works as a demonstration of how different these two styles of upbringing are, while simultaneously keeping the approach humorous. This is further enhanced as Chua mentions how she was ostracized at a dinner party when she told the other guests that she had used the same term to address her daughter. The following dramatic reaction of a guest leaving and the rest of the dinner party being spent rehabilitating Chua with the other guests, not only makes the story even more funny, but perhaps also indicates how Chua thinks Western parents have a tendency to be more emotional and protective of their children. Nonetheless, this “garbage” narrative also illustrates the very clear antithesis which the entire article is built around; the West vs. the