Rebutting the Tiger Mother: Semantics
I think one of my biggest issues with Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother is Chua's problematic nomenclature. Leaving aside the grossly fetishistic overtones of Tiger becoming a descriptor for Chinese (come on, that crap is so last decade), I really think that Chua's decision to call her parenting method "Chinese" is irresponsible, and her opening disclaimer is a complete cop-out.
The best way I can explain my thinking is by doing a find-and-replace on her disclaimer with another prevailing cultural parenting stereotype, one that is completely negative and absolutely offensive:
ORIGINAL:
I’m using the term “Chinese mother” loosely. I recently met a supersuccessful white guy from South Dakota and after comparing notes we decided that his working-class father had definitely been a Chinese mother. I know some Korean, Indian, Jamaican, Irish and Ghanaian parents who qualify too. Conversely, I know some mothers of Chinese heritage, almost always born in the West, who are not Chinese mothers, by choice or otherwise.
REPLACEMENT:
I’m using the term “black father” loosely. I recently met an unemployed Indian guy from South Dakota and after comparing notes we decided that his white-collar mother had definitely been a black father. I know some Korean, Indian, Jamaican, Irish and Ghanaian parents who qualify too. Conversely, I know some fathers of African-American descent, almost always born in the Hamptons, who are not black fathers, by choice or otherwise.
Do you see my point? Chua argues that "there are tons of studies out there showing marked and quantifiable differences between Chinese and Westerners when it comes to parenting." Sure, and there are probably even more studies showing, statistically, that there are more black than Asian single-parent households, or that there is a greater frequency of deadbeat dads among African-Americans than any other racial group. That doesn't make it right for you to write a memoir about YOUR deadbeat dad and sell it as a commentary about "black fatherhood" in general.
No matter how nuanced the author's concluding argument may be, there's no getting around the fact that she is exploiting a stereotype in order to promote the book. For every individual who eventually gets around to reading the whole thing, there are dozens if not hundreds more who only skim the headline (or the sensationalistic WSJ excerpt) and come away with their prejudices reinforced.
And, in the case of this book, that not only further alienates people of Asian descent, but may also exacerbate the tensions in a climate in which people are already paranoid about a driven, dispassionate (read: inhuman/e) foreign culture come to steal their jobs, their children's college berths, and their very livelihoods. That may sound like a stretch, but it really doesn't take much to trigger a hate crime.
Not to mention, Chua's claim that her parenting method is "Chinese" is in many cases wrong, and also flat-out racist. I'll continue to address the former in chapter commentaries, and as for the latter:
The best way I can explain my thinking is by doing a find-and-replace on her disclaimer with another prevailing cultural parenting stereotype, one that is completely negative and absolutely offensive:
ORIGINAL:
I’m using the term “Chinese mother” loosely. I recently met a supersuccessful white guy from South Dakota and after comparing notes we decided that his working-class father had definitely been a Chinese mother. I know some Korean, Indian, Jamaican, Irish and Ghanaian parents who qualify too. Conversely, I know some mothers of Chinese heritage, almost always born in the West, who are not Chinese mothers, by choice or otherwise.
REPLACEMENT:
I’m using the term “black father” loosely. I recently met an unemployed Indian guy from South Dakota and after comparing notes we decided that his white-collar mother had definitely been a black father. I know some Korean, Indian, Jamaican, Irish and Ghanaian parents who qualify too. Conversely, I know some fathers of African-American descent, almost always born in the Hamptons, who are not black fathers, by choice or otherwise.
Do you see my point? Chua argues that "there are tons of studies out there showing marked and quantifiable differences between Chinese and Westerners when it comes to parenting." Sure, and there are probably even more studies showing, statistically, that there are more black than Asian single-parent households, or that there is a greater frequency of deadbeat dads among African-Americans than any other racial group. That doesn't make it right for you to write a memoir about YOUR deadbeat dad and sell it as a commentary about "black fatherhood" in general.
No matter how nuanced the author's concluding argument may be, there's no getting around the fact that she is exploiting a stereotype in order to promote the book. For every individual who eventually gets around to reading the whole thing, there are dozens if not hundreds more who only skim the headline (or the sensationalistic WSJ excerpt) and come away with their prejudices reinforced.
And, in the case of this book, that not only further alienates people of Asian descent, but may also exacerbate the tensions in a climate in which people are already paranoid about a driven, dispassionate (read: inhuman/e) foreign culture come to steal their jobs, their children's college berths, and their very livelihoods. That may sound like a stretch, but it really doesn't take much to trigger a hate crime.
Not to mention, Chua's claim that her parenting method is "Chinese" is in many cases wrong, and also flat-out racist. I'll continue to address the former in chapter commentaries, and as for the latter:
- I used to be kind of proud of being a Model Minority. Like, Asians were special because their stereotype was a compliment. (I hadn't yet learned the ones about being cheap, driving and dogs.) Now I know that any judgment of your individual character or tendencies based on your ethnicity or racial background is racism in action. This really should be an obvious point.
- You know how some people say, after a joke, "It's not racist because I'm Asian/black/Hispanic!"? Yeah, that's not actually true (although I've used the excuse and probably will again -- I'm not saying one shouldn't tell race-based humor; I'm just saying that we should call it what it is). Just because Chua is Chinese herself doesn't render her innocent of cannibalizing the Chinese culture from which she purports to derive her parenting methods. Also, for all of Chua's attempts at "humor" (maybe???), Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother is no Bossypants. If only.