A few weeks ago, an excerpt from "Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother," a novel by Yale Law professor Amy Chua, was published in The Wall Street Journal under the title "Why Chinese Mothers are Superior." The excerpt promotes a caricatured depiction of Asian mothers as relentlessly strict. This aggressive, biased representation of the book, however, is mild compared to the outraged national reaction it has provoked. The strong backlash against Chua and her work has resulted from readers' confusion on several points, from a misunderstanding about who created The Journal article to a misconception of the very nature of the book itself.
First, the title, "Why Chinese Mothers are Superior," was chosen by Journal editors, not Chua. The title suggests that Chua advocates some of her borderline abusive child-rearing techniques as parenting par excellence. As a result, readers are primed to disregard any textual evidence that points to a less extreme view, such as Chua's assertion in the excerpt that it's, "a misunderstanding on both sides. All decent parents want to do what's best for their children. The Chinese just have a totally different idea of how to do that."
The Journal further polarizes the reader against Chua with pull-quotes of reader comments such as "I am in disbelief after reading this article" embedded within the body of the online text. Emphasis on these comments frames the article as a credible synopsis of Chua's book and de-emphasizes the fact that the article is only a short section of the 256-page work. Even more importantly, the sections that compose the excerpt are cherry-picked from various chapters throughout the first half of the book. These selections carefully exclude the nuanced subtitle: "This was supposed to be a story of how Chinese parents are better at raising kids than Western ones. But instead, it's about a bitter clash of cultures, a fleeting taste of glory, and how I was humbled by a thirteen-year-old." Clearly, Chua's authorial intention is not to polarize. In fact, her subtitle demonstrates her concern that readers might misinterpret her intentions, thinking that she actually believes Chinese parenting is superior to Western parenting a mistake she almost made herself.
The blatant national sensationalizing of this book has even trickled down into how local book vendors are marketing the work. The book can be found in the Family and Childcare section of our local Dartmouth Bookstore a satellite of the national chain Barnes and Noble. This in-store shelving can be justified given the title of Chua's book and her focus on how she raised her children, but considering its placement alongside child-rearing guides such as "The Seven Spiritual Laws for Parents and Parenting with Love and Logic," it is inappropriate. The style and content of the book is much closer to a personal memoir than a parenting handbook. Chua's story centers on her realizations about the intersection of cultures one would expect to find alongside other popular memoirs such as Elizabeth Gilbert's "Eat, Pray, Love."
While the book's content is intentionally provocative, it is far from the abusive narrative that The Journal article makes it out to be. Yes, some of Chua's parenting techniques are diametrically opposed to what American popular wisdom advocates, and I do not agree with some of her more extreme measures. Despite this, her core belief that it is a parent's job to prepare her child for the world is hardly insane or blameworthy.
When the propaganda is stripped away, it is possible to recognize that Chua loves and cares deeply about her children and their happiness. She just has a different idea about what will make them happiest in the long run. As a reader who genuinely enjoyed exploring Chua's parenting journey with her and sympathized with her ambivalence about culture, I am disappointed that such a prestigious national newspaper as The Wall Street Journal would engage in such blatant sensationalizing.
