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Yong Zhao » Blog Archive » You must be joking, Professor Chua: An open letter to the Chinese Tiger Mom

Yong Zhao » Blog Archive » You must be joking, Professor Chua: An open letter to the Chinese Tiger Mom

You must be joking, Professor Chua: An open letter to the Chinese Tiger Mom

15 JANUARY 2011 8 NO COMMENT

You must be joking, Professor Chua: An open letter to the Chinese Tiger Mom

Dear Professor Chua,

By now, your Wall Street Journal article Why Chinese Mothers are Superior has circled around the globe and you have appeared on many media outlets. Undoubtedly you are aware of the firestorm the article has created everywhere. Frankly I was at first appalled by your article because I have read your book Days of Empire, in which you suggest that tolerance is the force that helped build great empires. But in this article, you seem to suggest otherwise—that a totalitarian, authoritarian, and dictatorial approach will produce a successful person. This contradiction helped to realize that you must be joking, just like this YouTube video by Eric Liang that makes fun of how “crazy Asian moms” react when their children get a B.

I am sure, as a well-educated Professor of Yale, you must know that even in China only “garbage parents” call their children garbage. And those who call their children garbage or similar things are generally looked