Comments | ontd_feminism: Follow-up to Amy Chua post

urban_stoop in ontd_feminism

Follow-up to Amy Chua post

Jan 13, 2011 18:56

Wall Street Journal Misrepresented Chua's Book on "Asian Parenting"

Follow-up to this post, from a review in the SF Chronicle, via the mothership:

The more I re-read the Wall Street Journal article, the more I felt like I wasn't getting the whole story. The "excerpt" made the book seem like a harsh diatribe against American parenting standards and ( Read more... )

parenting, media, ableism, asia, children

Comments 25

mollywobbles867 January 13 2011, 18:28:34 UTC

Well, the WSJ sucks for doing that.

youkiddinright January 13 2011, 19:00:51 UTC

Journalism, how does it fucking work.

imnotasquirrel January 13 2011, 19:30:22 UTC

It's almost like the WSJ wanted to start all this model minority controversy!!

I mentioned this in the Tirade post, but I'll say it again here because it bears repeating I FEEL LIKE IT DAMMIT - I hate how the Chua piece has apparently emboldened more white people to start with the gross stereotypes of Asian culture as they talk about all the Asian friends/students/kids they know, as if that gives them some grand insight into Asian society. It's like...look, I don't mind if non-Asian people ask questions about certain stereotypes, e.g. IIRC, one person in the previous post asked about the stereotype of the violin-or-piano-playing Asian kid. That stuff is fine. But I would really appreciate it if people who aren't a part of the culture - and no, simply having Asian friends does not make you an insider, nor does being into kpop/jrock/anime/etc. - didn't start trying to tell me 'how it is.'

buongiornodaisy January 13 2011, 19:38:13 UTC

I am completely and utterly shocked. I didn't read the article in question, just the controversy/fallout, but boy howdy who'da thunk a Western newspaper would ever try to whip up a fresh batch of Yellow Peril?

imnotasquirrel January 13 2011, 20:00:06 UTC

I think it's this weird conflict of interest in white American society.

On the one hand, they want to puff East Asians up as this model minority as an example to those other POC. After all, if yellow people can succeed in America, then black and brown people should quit their bitching and get to work ( ... )

buongiornodaisy January 13 2011, 20:06:07 UTC

You get this scenario where white people want to puff up Asians so that they can tell other POC to shut up, but they can't puff Asians up too much because white people must always be #1.

Yeah. I definitely got the last part from this, at least: that this article was edited in such a way to make white/Western parents feel superior. Which is hilarious because you know there are plenty of kids who were raised by white Western style parents who are still pretty fucked up from the experience.

mybluesunset January 14 2011, 02:25:45 UTC

This is a really awesome comment.

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rkt January 14 2011, 04:06:45 UTC

I mean, yeah, I blame Chua for creating this ridiculous public persona

i don't understand this statement. she didnt create the persona. wsj did.

mybluesunset January 14 2011, 04:12:09 UTC

that several studies, over the past 75 years have shown that the more authoritarian but less invasive parenting style that 1st and 2nd generation immigrant families tend to have is actually psychologically healthier for children

Are there really? I'm sure I can do some googling for myself, but if there are a few that stand out to you as the most interesting, I'd love a link or two. Even though my natural reaction to anything authoritarian is "squick," that sounds terribly interesting.

roseofjuly January 14 2011, 06:36:58 UTC

How are you going to blame Chua? Just because she's inadvertently benefiting from this? Yes, it's going to sell her more books but she's not the one who portrayed her book this way, the WSJ. She didn't create this persona - the WSJ did by selectively picking her excerpts.

Even though I agree that she's promoting some really harmful parenting practices as if they are awesome

Except that the article cited in the OP explains that she's not:

"I was very surprised," she says. "The Journal basically strung together the most controversial sections of the book. And I had no idea they'd put that kind of a title on it. But the worst thing was, they didn't even hint that the book is about a journey, and that the person at beginning of the book is different from the person at the end -- that I get my comeuppance and retreat from this very strict Chinese parenting model."They misrepresented her on purpose, probably because they knew this model minority shit was going to sell more books. White people love to appropriate "Eastern" methods of ( ... )

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