On better footing to understand parenting and family process in Asian American families.

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Amy Chua’s now notorious Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother (2011) was not a scholarly treatise on the empirically tested merits of Chinese versus European American parenting traditions. The advance publicity for the memoir drew national and international attention to parenting in Chinese and Asian American families. The public reaction to Chua’s description of her methods of “Chinese” mothering drew vehement criticism both from mainstream media and from ethnic studies scholars. The former decried the use of strict parenting practices seen as promoting achievement at the costs of child self-esteem and emotional well-being; the latter abhorred the promotion of stereotypical model minority images of Chinese American families. Both camps objected to Chua’s claims about the merits of so-called Chinese parenting, based on her family experience rather than rigorous research. Yet, her memoir has achieved the effect of organizing a new and valuable nexus of research centered on this topic. The articles included in the current issue represent a collection of articles that helps us advance our understanding of Chinese and Asian American parenting. Chua’s proclamation of the merits of tiger mothering was met with two strands of outrage. First, there was objection to the stereotypic depiction of Chinese parenting as harsh and relentlessly demanding. Second, there were wrenching testimonials of Asian Americans who suffered personal distress in the wake of being parented in this very manner. Frank Chi (2011) spelled out both objections, decrying Chua’s perpetuation of stereotypes and her glorification of shared childhood traumas of Asian Americans. On the face of it, these two grievances are somewhat at odds with each other. Does Chau’s characterization reflect a false generalization about cultural differences in parenting? Or are these differences observable at the aggregate level and have they harmed Asian American children collectively? This commentary integrates the original research in this special issue to deconstruct three claims that Chua makes in the Battle Hymn: (a) compared with European American parents, Asian-origin parents favor tiger parenting marked by harsh control and emphasize achievement over emotional and social developmental outcomes, (b) differences in parenting between European American and Asian American parenting are attributable to culturally shaped values, and (c) tiger parenting results in high levels of achievement and well-being.