When I read this article, the first thing I thought was that the mother is emotionally abusive; I don't personally know anyone who has been raised in such a limited manner (although she might be hyperbolizing for the sake of publicity).
I forgot all about the article until a friend from college emailed me the article, and one of his friends mass replied with the following bizarre, xenophobic response:
From: [Name redacted]
Sent: Wed, January 26, 2011 4:53:23 PM
Subject: Re: Why Chinese mothers are superior
Subject: Re: Why Chinese mothers are superior
Whilst I appreciate any discussion that emphasises differences across cultures, this article does little to explain the general success of the Chinese. The Chinese are generally successful because they are generally very intelligent. This woman's horrible model for rearing children might have worked in making rigid piano players or straight A-students, but has little or nothing to do with actual success in life. The prohibition from watching television or playing video games is good, as are some of her other ideas. But in the end, she gives herself far too much credit for her children's intellectual capacity. Finally, she makes the great blunder of assuming that good ways to raise Orientals will also work with Westerners.
Let the Chinese show one tenth of the ingenuity of the West and then I'll listen to her diatribes about not allowing her children to make decisions of their own. Yes, the Chinese produce kids who can solve Rubik's cubes in thirty seconds, score high on standardised tests, and play Bach inventions at perfect speed (and zero style) - the perfect results of forced learning by rote. No, in the West we do not pat ourselves on the back for such useless achievements.Thomas Edison, Leonard Euler, Wolfgang Mozart, Thomas Aquinas, and the Wright Brothers - these are the jewels of the West upon whose backs the entirety of China will be indebted forever. No, the Wright Brothers probably could not play the piano very well. But they had the insatiable drive to tinker and explore until they got to the bottom of the answer - something that was allowed to them in their youth by their father, Bishop Martin Wright.
Good for you, Chinese mother. You go, girlfriend. As for me, I'll raise my children as Vikings - always curious as to what lays beyond and never willing to stick to what is known. You can go right ahead and spend all your time forcing your children (who are being raised in a European country) to play European compositions on European instruments and perform in European plays at the local public school. And using European-invented lighting the whole way, of course.
Let the Chinese show one tenth of the ingenuity of the West and then I'll listen to her diatribes about not allowing her children to make decisions of their own. Yes, the Chinese produce kids who can solve Rubik's cubes in thirty seconds, score high on standardised tests, and play Bach inventions at perfect speed (and zero style) - the perfect results of forced learning by rote. No, in the West we do not pat ourselves on the back for such useless achievements.Thomas Edison, Leonard Euler, Wolfgang Mozart, Thomas Aquinas, and the Wright Brothers - these are the jewels of the West upon whose backs the entirety of China will be indebted forever. No, the Wright Brothers probably could not play the piano very well. But they had the insatiable drive to tinker and explore until they got to the bottom of the answer - something that was allowed to them in their youth by their father, Bishop Martin Wright.
Good for you, Chinese mother. You go, girlfriend. As for me, I'll raise my children as Vikings - always curious as to what lays beyond and never willing to stick to what is known. You can go right ahead and spend all your time forcing your children (who are being raised in a European country) to play European compositions on European instruments and perform in European plays at the local public school. And using European-invented lighting the whole way, of course.
There may have been a time in my life where I would have responded to him with aggressive, angry invective. Instead, I decided to mass reply to him and all his friends with the following:
Wed, January 26, 2011 5:37:22 PM
It's a logical fallacy to cherry pick four Western innovators across 400 years to prove your point of Western innovation. The people you named are uniquely gifted and curious, and they exist in every culture. Are you really going to say that there are not Chinese who have not made technological, philosophical, and academic advances comparative to the West? And aren't you comparing the combined innovations all of America and Europe to a single country in Asia? It's also worth noting that the people of Chinese descent mentioned in the article ARE American. Are you making a ethnic point or a cultural point about the Chinese?
I disliked the article, because this woman (and by proxy the journalist who wrote this article) is implicitly speaking on behalf of all Chinese, as if saying that this is a "Chinese" model of raising children. It's a strange extension of the 'inscrutable' Chinese stereotype, where we are seen as a mindless, inscrutable mass of people. I was never raised like that, and my parents allowed me to pursue my interests while also emphasizing academic success (as good parents tend to do!) I also see the "Chinese" model among other cultures. Colleagues who are Nigerian, Jewish, and Irish all told me they had a "Chinese" manner of being raised. I don't see this authoritarian approach to child rearing as being exclusively Asian. The writer makes the mistake of taking an abusive, controlling parent, and using this parent to reinforce a common generalization about the Chinese at large. I suppose there may be cultural values that the Chinese raise their kids with, but this, by my estimate, is extreme.
The article, from beginning to end, is flawed, and what this woman describes is awful and is not "Chinese." No culture should be defined so strongly by one loud, voice. This would be the same as taking a self-proclaimed, patriotic 'American' mother who coddled her kids to be entitled, lazy brats, and discussing this as raising the child in an 'American' way. It's a simplistic, stupid approach. It's alarming that anyone would view such a misinformed article as truthful and use it to make a vague point about Western superiority in ingenuity.
This Oriental is still waiting to hear back. Punk.
