Interpretation of the Image of Tiger Mother under the Satire Model: A Case Study of Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother

Abstract

The book Battle Hymn of the Tiger mother caught fire overnight across the United States, and has brought the term “tiger mother” to the forefront of everyone’s attention. Despite the fact that author Amy Chua’s children are successful and splendid, the alternative way of education depicted in her book, which not only restricts the freedom of her children but also gives them threats and suppression, has caused controversy. With the help of Virginia Satir ’s family therapy theory, this article makes elaboration on Chua’s behavior and reveals that Chua communicates with her daughters in states of low self-esteem. In their communication process, Chua always adopts incongruent communication and plays the role of the blamer and the super-reasonable. And after profiling Chua according to the iceberg theory in the Satir model, it is found that she deliberately avoids emotional pain, stubbornly insists on what she thinks is right, and feels powerless about expectations falling short, and those are the deep causes of Chua’s behavior. A comprehensive interpretation of the central representative of Tiger parenting, Amy Chua, not only can reflect on the shortcomings of tiger parenting, but also can bring new enlightenment and thoughts about family education and help advance toward better family education.