The Chua article is a caricature of “Chinese” parenting, and the responses to the article are absurd because they take Chua at face value. Chua is American, and it would help if the commentators had ever had serious engagement in China with real Chinese. Instead they simply react credulously to this affirmative action yuppie hypenated American professorette.
Dunno who you are referring to, but I am far closer to this issue than I’ll bother to reveal here.
That’s a good observation. Ms. Chua chose to label her style of child-rearing as “Chinese” in the same way that some label a certain type of culture as “Black.” Those who fit the racial label but don’t follow the writer’s ideology are “not really” Chinese or Black.
I’m predisposed to think Ms. Chua is a dreadful person *because* she’s a Yale law professor, while she probably considers that a highly praiseworthy accomplishment. Different worlds ...
I thought she was really trying to push people's buttons with the article to be provocative. I assumed when I read it; that she was probably deliberately going over the top with her writing.
It's funny to see the reaction!