I didn't have a Tiger Mom, but I did have a High Expectations Asian Father who did not let us speak English in the house (that didn't last long), who forced us to go to Thai school, who did not believe in air conditioning during the day (in Florida), who did not "let" me date until I finished college and who did not let us sleep over at other kids' houses (unless they were Thai). But, I have a feeling a lot of us revisiting our childhood are wincing, too. When you're no longer under oppressive rule and enjoying freedom, it's easier to laugh at the tyranny of the past. By the way, that's not Chua in the photo, but some stock image. Here's a link to a meme generator with more laugh-inducing, cringe-worthy sayings, such as this one (to the right). Cathartic.) And Yang also found those yucks, as seen in the memes above, which I grabbed from one of his Facebook albums (we're not only Facebook friends, we're real-life friends who have known each other for more than a decade). (Like watching "The Joy Luck Club" in the theater with your friends and realizing this is a little too real, and crying and laughing at the same time about it. He also rooted out the puppeteer behind all of the fuss: Rupert Murdoch, who might be married to a Tiger Mom himself.Īs much as there was serious soul wrangling in adults reminiscing about their childhood and looking at their own parenting styles now, there was also humor. It's a little, but not quite, like a Chelsea Handler book - if Chelsea Handler were a Chinese American law professor and Momzilla of two. There's still plenty to be horrified by at in the actual book, but even more, as Wang noted, to think about - and laugh at, as odd as that may seem to those who haven't yet read it: Far from being strident, the book's tone is slightly rueful, frequently self-deprecating and entirely aware of its author's enormities. It's a riveting read, and nothing like what the Journal "excerpt" suggests. In short: Chua's claims may reinforce existing misperceptions about Asian students and families, but, he found that "The 'excerpt' made the book seem like a harsh diatribe against American parenting standards and a handbook of Ancient Chinese Secrets for fixing your lazy, sullen, Wii-addicted kids." So he read the book in one sitting and declared: Wash the mask after every use.You can imagine, there were all kinds of backlash to this, but there was also insightful commentary too, such as this one from San Francisco Chronicle columnist Jeff Yang, who dug deep in the reservoir of the Asian American experience to make a thoughtful analysis of the situation, in the context of Chua's book.
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