Even if you didn't read her book, you remember Amy Chua.
She was blazingly famous for a couple of weeks late last year after the publication of her memoir, "Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother," which laid forth frankly and rather surprisingly her views on parenting. That is, that American children are soft mollycoddled underachievers, and that children raised in "the Chinese way" are much more successful and accomplished.
The way to raise them the Chinese way, apparently, is to scream at them, belittle them, call them names, give them the cold shoulder, demand that they practice/study/rehearse for a billion hours a day, rip up the birthday cards they lovingly draw for you, and then scream at them some more. Oh, and deny them sleepovers with friends or other unecessary frivoloties that might allow them to take their eye off the ball for a second.
Her book--which she insists on her Website is tongue-in-cheek ("it's also supposed to be funny, filled with zany showdowns between me and daughters, who have all the best lines and are always calling my bluff")--was the subject of countless magazine and newspaper articles, TV reports, blog postings (some by her own daughters) and watercooler gossip. The verdict seemed split, with half of the population appalled by her book and the other half thinking well, you know, she's on to something here, with her high standards and her strictness.
(Her own daughters are, by all accounts, lovely, accomplished, and talented, excelling both in their academic studies and in the arts; Sophia played piano at Carnegie Hall and Lulu played the violin in Budapest.)
Chua's tour flogging the paperback edition of the book begins today, in Oregon. She'll wend her way across the country, ending up in the Twin Cities on Feb. 10, when she will present the 11th annual Bob and Kim Griffin Building U.S.-China Bridges Lecture, at 4:30 p.m. at the McNamara Alumni Center. It's free and open to the public.
The title of her talk? "Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother: To Increase Mutual Understanding between U.S. and China." I
Um, given the divisiveness of her book, is that supposed to be ironic?
