tiger mothers

[Victor Steinbok]

Given the rather paltry numbers (a news article can generate 50000 raw
ghits virtually overnight), I suspect virtually all of them are a
consequence of Chua's writing--likely less the book itself compared to
the NYT and WSJ pieces. The one in WSJ is particularly unapologetic in
what some commentators have termed "child abuse" (e.g., no water until
you can play a violin piece perfectly). I suppose, the real question is
what Chua got her terminology, if she did not coin it herself (i.e.,
China==Tiger symbolism).

A significant majority of reaction to the book and the articles has been
negative, some people taking it to the point of hysteria. Chua has
received death threats and has been slowly walking back some of the
claims--after all, she says, her younger child rebelled at 13 and she
had to relent and tone down her approach. Her husband is also a Yale law
school prof and has his own book coming out. The issue has been very
popular, so 140K ghits really does not sound like much--it does not
include all the Facebook and chat discussions that have been going on.

     VS-)

On 1/24/2011 10:33 AM, Joel S. Berson wrote:
> How much of this has been prompted by the very recent book by Amy
> Chua, "Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother"? Her book was mentioned
> (more authentically, promoted) by a "colleague" and fellow (Yale?)
> professor in a NYTimes article Jan. 10 as about to come out, she had
> an essay in the Wall Street Journal (I'm not surprised) before
> Jan.10, she apparently was on a book tour in the U.S. last week, and
> she is called a "Wimp" by David Brooks in the NYTimes on the 17th.
>
> (CNN must have taken "wimp" from either Brooks or the book itself.)
>
> Joel
>
> At 1/24/2011 07:08 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>> CNN discusses "kids who were raised by so-called 'tiger mothers.'"
>>
>> Tiger mothers live mostly in China. There are millions of them. They use
>> very tough love to turn their kids into world-beating overachievers,
>> unlike
>> American mothers who use wimpy love to turn theirs into whining,
>> talentless losers.
>>
>> How to Tell them Apart: tiger moms harass kids till they shape up; mama
>> grizzlies protect them from socialism.
>>
>> 148,000 hits for "tiger mother," 124,000 for "tiger mom," 5,000 for
>> "tiger
>> mommy." Of course, most of these - esp. the last - refer to real tiger
>> moms.
>>
>> Some background here:
>> http://blogs.ajc.com/cynthia-tucker/2011/01/21/tiger-mothers-vs-most-americans/?cxntfid=blogs_cynthia_tucker
>>
>>
>> JL

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