Ching Chongs and Tiger Moms: The “Asian Invasion” in U.S. Higher Education

Abstract

Personal memoirs by people who are not household names rarely set off fiery debate and conversations the way that Amy Chua's Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother ignited them in January 2011.1 Yet Tiger Mom's chronicle of her experiences as a second-generation Asian American woman raising mixed-race, third-generation daughters has clearly struck a national nerve. The book has been discussed in major print and broadcast media outlets including the Wall Street Journal, Time, Newsweek, NPR, and the New York Times, just to name a few; Chua has even made an appearance on The Colbert Report on Comedy Central. The hype generated around the book can be explained by two key concepts. First, Battle Hymn converges with the master narrative framing Asians in America as invading foreigners who maintain their peculiar un-American cultures in the U.S. Second, it concomitantly connects to cultural fears of a non-white population challenging white supremacy vis-a-vis educational attainment, particularly in elite college admiss...