Everybody’s favorite Tiger Mom, Chinese-American Amy Chua, is back in the news, this time for penning a new book with her husband that declares there are eight breeds of people in the United States who are better primed for success than others.
Here’s who’s in Chua’s Elite 8 (in alpabetic order):
— Chinese
— Cuban Exiles
— Indians
— Iranians
— Jews
— Lebanese-Americans
— Mormons
— Nigerians
Of course she’s talking from a the perspective of an American parent (who has raised her children with values distilled from her Chinese background and her husband’s Jewish tradition), but her message is sure to resonate here in China where similar parenting styles are the norm.
Chua and her husband’s thesis is that the above-mentioned groups share three characteristics that drive success: a sense of superiority, insecurity about the future; and strong impulse control.
For those of you who have somehow missed out on the Tiger Mom phenomenon, Chua became all the rage in the United States as well as on our fair shores here in Beijing in 2010 with the release of her book The Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother. Chinese moms could definitely see themselves in the way they have been raising their children. Her tome particularly polarized Chinese parents, some of whom declared her to be god’s gift to parenting, while others who were terrorized by such parenting techniques as a child claimed she was Satan incarnate.
Oddly the cultural shift that China has been making in education — most agree that children are under too much academic pressure here, and legislative efforts such as banning homework and preschool prep courses, have been aimed at allowing children more time to develop other skills rather than the time-honored academic basics.
The Triple Package will be released Feb 4; pre-order it for the Kindle here.
