Tiger Mother Research Articles

The new meritocracy or over-schooled robots? Public attitudes on Asian–Australian education cultures

ABSTRACTThe academic success of Asian–Australian students has become increasingly visible over the last decade. They are over-represented in high-performing schools, gifted and talented programmes and prestigious university courses. These achievements have generated both admiration and anxiety. Congratulatory voices depict Asian–Australians as a model minority, whose work ethic promises to enhance Australian schooling and propel the nation’s meritocracy forward. Anxious voices worry about the escalation of a competitive culture, symbolised by excessive coaching and the ‘tiger parenting’ of Asian migrants. This paper examines the divided public attitudes on Asian–Australian education cultures through a discourse analysis of several hundred online comments posted in response to newspaper stories on ‘Asian success’ over the last five years. It identifies two competing discourses underlying these opinions: firstly, a pro-meritocratic, neo-liberal discourse, in which Asian–Australians embody the competitive spirit and aspiration required in a globalised economy, and secondly, a discourse of Asian–Australians as inauthentic learners whose excessive focus on schooling threatens the traditionally relaxed Australian approach to childhood and education. While these two discourses differ in their evaluation of Asian–Australian students, both share a culturally essentialist framework that explains educational outcomes in terms of ‘culture’. The paper analyses the racial politics of this cultural essentialism.

Chinese education in the novel by A. Chua Battle hymn of the tiger mother

Chinese culture and tradition stand in direct opposition to American and European cultures. Chinese children must live according to the principles of metaconfucianism from an early age. Failure to do so threatens social ostracism.Amy Chua in her autobiographical novel Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother describes the education of her two daughters living in America according to the principles present in China. The educational methods used by Chua are considered controversial by western parents. The author made an attempt to explain the motives of Asian mothers.

Traditional Beliefs About Weretigers Among the Garos of Meghalaya (India)

The Garos, a tribal group who live in India (western highlands of Meghalaya and the southern foothills of Assam) and northern Bangladesh, are noted for their diverse beliefs on weretigers – that is, human beings with the ability of turning themselves, in various ways, into ferocious tigers and subsequently back to human form. The present paper provides a first attempt at classifying the different motifs in Garo weretiger-lore which include traditional beliefs of: (1) a legendary ‘race’ of monstrous tigermen ruled over by a Tiger Mother; (2) individuals endowed with a ‘dual’ vital principle inhabiting a human body during daytime and a tiger one at nighttime; and (3) shape-shifters who can physically metamorphose into tigers through magical arts. This classification highlights the rich variety of beliefs held by the Garos on these quintessential liminal beings, and provides a critical analysis of the most frequently occurring class of werebeasts in the folktales, legends, and epics of tropical Asia.

The Angel of Geography

Contemporary capitalism is in the throes of crises precipitated by over-accumulation and the effects of decades of privatization, commodification, and financialization, each sieved through the other. The angel of geography is conjured to mark these crises on the grounds of everyday life. Their profound and uneven consequences for the present and future, seen in the shifting discourses and material social practices around children and childhood, call for redress. This piece builds upon my ongoing project, ‘childhood as spectacle’, to examine what is at stake in the accomplishment of social reproduction – and its failures – in turbulent times and heterogeneous spaces. Looking closely at the ways aspirations for the future are defined, managed, reached, and deferred in and through the family and schools, I take stock of contemporary social reproduction and its anxieties. Drawing on three popular and contradictory cultural productions, the films Race to Nowhere and Waiting for Superman, and the best-selling book Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua, I will address some of the ways the lives and wellbeing of some children – middle-class and wealthier children – have been fetishized while others – the vast majority of children – suffer the consequences of a disinvested public sphere and a radically reduced social wage. As the sense of precariousness stemming from the financial crises of the past decade widens and infiltrates everyday life more deeply, this situation becomes more acute. In this context, aspiration and its management can be framed as a cultural politics ripe for unpacking; a structure of feeling whose drives and effects may illuminate the present as a political moment.

‘Tiger mom, panda dad’: a study of contemporary Chinese parenting profiles

ABSTRACTThe goal of this study was to explore the inter-parental differences and the major clusters of Chinese parenting profile in a sample of preschoolers’ fathers and mothers in urban China. Eighty-six Chinese couples in Shenzhen completed a parenting style questionnaire, and four couples were interviewed to provide additional illumination. A paired t-test was used to find inter-parental differences and cluster analysis was used to find major clusters of parenting profiles. Mothers were more authoritarian than fathers. Three major clusters of parenting profiles were found: easy-going parenting, followed by tiger parenting and supportive parenting. Inter-parental differences existed among these couples, and ‘tiger moms’ and ‘panda dads’ were common in these Chinese families.

Book Review: Asian American Culture: From Anime to Tiger Moms

Asian American Culture: From Anime to Tiger Moms is a two-volume reference work that consists of 170 articles discussing many aspects of Asian American culture. Editor Lan Dong has broadly defined Asian American culture “to encompass the historical as well as contemporary cultural practices and productions related to Asian Americans” (xxix).

Social Science

Social Science Hung Cam Thai, chair, Anthony Ocampo, and Cara Wong The committee unanimously and enthusiastically selected Jennifer Lee and Min Zhou's The Asian American Achievement Paradox (Russell Sage Foundation, 2015) for the 2017 Asian American Studies Best Book Award in the Social Sciences. This theoretical breakthrough book offers rigorous empirical evidence, analytical sophistication, and remarkable intervention in national conversations about education, immigration, culture and inequality. Based on survey and interview data from one of the major data sets on second generation immigrants in the United States, Lee and Zhou lucidly integrate structural and cultural arguments to explain the high levels of economic and educational outcomes among Asian Americans. Focusing on Chinese and Vietnamese children of immigrants, the authors foreground the "hyper" and "high" selectivity of national policies that shape who comes to the United States and the economic opportunity structures they experience prior to and after their immigration. Rejecting standard accounts of the "model minority" discussion that underscore either Confucian cultural values or "tiger mom" parenting styles, they demonstrate how culture and structure interact in complex ways to produce specific "success frames" among some Asian American groups. In doing so, they chronicle the complex interactions of social, demographic, historical, cultural, and [End Page 464] psychological attributes that explain mobility patterns among Asian Americans today. The arguments are articulated clearly and systematically with the most important debates crossing sociology, psychology, and Asian American studies. Copyright © 2017 Johns Hopkins University Press

Battling the Tiger Mother: Pre‐School Reform and Conflicting Norms of Parenthood in Singapore

This article explores pre‐school reform and shifting norms of parenthood in Singapore. Whereas current education reforms in many Western countries focus on improving academic performance, pre‐school reform in Singapore de‐emphasises academic learning and urges parents to adopt ‘relaxed’ parenting practices. Analysing the position of parents in this process, we show, however, that the outcomes of this reform project are highly ambivalent. Reform makers view parents’ mindset as the main obstacle to reform, while parents experience pre‐school reform itself as prompting inconsistent messages. To account for the disorientation that this creates among parents, we draw on Bateson's concept of double bind.

Tiger Parenting and American Inequality: An Essay on Chua and Rubenfeld’s The Triple Package: How Three Unlikely Traits Explain the Rise and Fall of Cultural Groups in America

The role of culture in the creation and persistence of racial and ethnic inequalities has been the focus of considerable controversy in the social sciences. In The Triple Package: How Three Unlikely Traits Explain the Rise and Fall of Cultural Groups in America, a new book intended for a popular audience, “tiger mom” Amy Chua and Jed Rubenfeld argue that relatively successful ethnic, religious, and national origin groups in the United States possess a common set of culturally determined traits that drive this success: a sense of group superiority, individual insecurity, and good impulse control. The book is an unscholarly romp through fields of ethnic stereotypes and immigrant anxiety that relies on anecdote, rather than data, and that ignores the selectivity of immigrant flows. In their insistence on the need for the whole triple package, however, the authors raise issues relevant to current research on noncognitive skills—that there are important trait–environment interactions in the determinants of economic success, and that the source and impact of aspirations deserves greater attention. (JEL D63, J15, J24, Z12, Z13)

English

This paper discusses Chinese family education through discussing the tiger mother phenomenon. The author firstly explains what the tiger mother education or tiger mother phenomenon is; then introduces the Chinese family education from its concepts, aims, methods and contents; analyzes the underlying reasons for the appearance of Tiger Mother phenomenon---combination of Chinese family education and the special American social background. At last, the paper offers some suggestions to Chinese parents on their education of

Tiger Parents Rear Anxious Cubs

Tiger Parents Rear Anxious Cubs

Whither teaching? Academics’ informal learning about teaching in the ‘tiger mother’ university

Adopting a pluralistic view of academics’ informal learning that draws on Habermas (1987), this article suggests that a great deal of academic learning results from tensions and incompatibilities between individual interests and those of employing institutions increasingly resonant with the ideology of New Public Management (NPM), with its emphasis on market forces (e.g. student as ‘customer’), enhanced management power, surveillance, and measurement. To explore these ideas further, the article draws on interviews with academics at an Australian university to examine their informal learning about teaching. The academics interviewed had learnt a great deal from the changing context about how teaching is perceived by their institution, as well as about their own personal status and security in the new environment. The paper suggests that the ruthless push of NPM and associated ideologies and pressures impacting on higher education in Western countries represent ‘currents’ running counter to the efforts of academic developers to foster teaching excellence and expertise. The article’s conclusions suggest value in further research into the impact of ideological changes such as NPM on ‘learning about teaching’ in a variety of institutional settings.

Tiger Mother as Ethnopreneur: Amy Chua and the Cultural Politics of Chineseness

AbstractAmy Chua catapulted to fame in the United States with the publication of her bestsellingWorld on Fire: How Free Market Democracy Breeds Ethnic Hatred and Global Instability(2002) and a much-discussedWall Street Journalexcerpt from her next book,Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother(2011). A wry account of a ‘Chinese’ mother's efforts, not all successful, to raise her two daughters to be high-achievers,Tiger Mothercreated some controversy owing to its critique of ‘Western’-style parenting and its perceived advocacy of a ‘Tiger Mother’ brand of parenting that drew on the author's own experience of being raised by Chinese-Filipino immigrant parents in America. Not only didBattle Hymngenerate heated discussion in America about the stereotyping of Asian-Americans as ‘model minority’; it also tapped into American anxieties about the waning of U.S. power in the wake of a rising China, while provoking spirited responses from mainland Chinese women looking to raise their children in ‘enlightened’ ways. This article follows Amy Chua's career as an ‘ethnopreneur’ who capitalises on her claims of ‘Chineseness’ and access to ‘Chinese culture.’ Drawing on localised/provincialised, regional, and family-mediated notions of Chineseness, Chua exemplifies the ‘Anglo-Chinese’ who exploits – and profits from – national and cultural differences within nations as well as among Southeast Asia, the U.S., and China in order to promote particular forms of hybridised (trans)national identities while eschewing the idea of mainland China as the ultimate cultural arbiter of Chineseness.

Weighing Mothers Down: Diets, daughters, and maternal obligation

This study analyzes online reader responses to Dara-Lynn Weiss, whose controversial Vogue article and subsequent memoir, The Heavy, described how she put her seven-year-old daughter on a strict diet. Readers responded to Weiss in the context of ideas about the “tiger mother” approach to success-oriented parenting; and of beauty ideals. The research revealed how expectations around mothers’—but not fathers’—responsibilities for controlling their daughters’ weight are increasing and intensifying. Having generally embraced these responsibilities, the readers studied here used various websites to express their anxieties about successful parenting and to contest dominant media constructions of “good” mothers.

Hyper-parenting is negatively associated with physical activity among 7–12 year olds

ObjectiveTo explore associations between helicopter, little emperor, tiger mom, and concerted cultivation hyper-parenting styles with child physical activity. Methods724 North American parents of 7–12year olds completed a survey (May, 2014) that assessed their engagement in the hyper-parenting styles and the frequency that their child played outdoors, walked/bicycled, and played organized sports. Z-scores were generated for each hyper-parenting style and four groups were created: low (<−1 SD), below average (−1 to −0.49 SD), average (−0.50 to 0.50 SD), above average (0.51 to 0.1.0 SD), and high (>1 SD). ResultsOutdoor play, active transportation, and organized sport did not differ across helicopter parenting groups. Children in the low little emperor group had higher (P<0.005) outdoor play and active transportation scores than children in the average, above average, and high groups (exception: high group for outdoor play). Children in the low tiger mom and concerted cultivation groups had higher (P<0.005) outdoor play, active transportation, and organized sport scores than children in the average, above average, and high groups (exceptions: average and high tiger mom groups for organized sport). ConclusionsLittle emperor, tiger mom, and concerted cultivation parenting styles were associated with lower physical activity among 7–12year olds.

“Believe me when I say that this is not an attack on American parents”: The intercultural in intercultural parenting books

Abstract(

Tiger Parents or Sheep Parents? Struggles of Parental Involvement in Working-Class Chinese Immigrant Families

Background/ContextResearch on Chinese immigrant parents tends to focus on their high levels of educational involvement and its positive impact on their children's exceptional educational performances. Relatively little research has been conducted to understand the challenges Chinese immigrant parents face in helping their children with school and the resulting influence on parent-child relations and children's adaptation.Focus of StudyIn this paper, we examined how immigration reshapes parental involvement in these Chinese immigrant families and its subsequent influence on parent-child relations.SettingThe research was conducted in the metropolitan area of a northeastern city in the United States.ParticipantsOur participants were 72 Chinese immigrant children and their parents.Research DesignOur study utilizes longitudinal interview data with open-ended questions. Open, axial, and selective coding procedures were used in qualitative data analysis.Findings/ResultsOur findings suggest that when parents face multiple challenges in their adaptation after migration, they often experience a feeling of powerlessness especially in dealing with their children's schooling. This then forces the children to be precociously independent. This dynamic puts strain on parent-child relations and has a negative impact on children's adaptation.Conclusions/RecommendationsIt is important for schools and other social institutions working with Chinese immigrant families to reach out to parents by providing them with more information and resources to be more involved in their children's education. Immigrant and local communities can also help by offering parent and youth programs to help improve parental involvement and parent-child relations in Chinese and other immigrant families.

For a Better Life: The Aspirations of Chinese Immigrants in Parenting

This article discusses the parenting aspirations of Chinese immigrants, looking in detail at a study in New Zealand. My discussion of the topic centers on the aspirations of educated Chinese immigrants for their preschool children, and their ways of parenting. The “Tiger Mother” practice described in Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, and other research on immigrant parenting, directed my attention to this subject. It is argued that in times of change from one context to another, parenting style is an attempt by Chinese immigrants to realize their immigration aspirations for a better life for themselves and their children.

Autonomy and controlling support are two sides of the same coin

Autonomy and controlling support are generally viewed as being on the two extreme ends of a continuum and have been found to be negatively correlated with one another. Recent research and anecdotal evidence hint that controlling guidance (such as exemplified by “tiger parenting”) may not always be perceived and received negatively. We proposed that power distance moderates the endorsement of controlling strategies. We expected and found that in two studies, participants from Malaysia, a high power distance culture, perceived controlling strategies more positively than North Americans, and their endorsement of autonomy support was positively correlated with their endorsement of controlling support. There was no difference between North Americans and Malaysians in their endorsement of autonomy supportive strategies. The latter result supports self-determination theory’s contention that autonomy is universally important. The results suggest that for individuals who value power distance, autonomy and controlling practices are not necessarily seen as opposed, rather just alternate methods of providing support or guidance. In addition, we tested this hypothesis using power distance on an individual level in both cultures and again found the power distance influenced the endorsement of controlling strategies. This study highlights cross cultural and individual differences in acceptance and perceived benefits of controlling support.

My Mother and Me: Why Tiger Mothers Motivate Asian Americans But Not European Americans.

"Tiger Mother" Amy Chua provoked a culture clash with her claim that controlling parenting in Asian American (AA) contexts produces more successful children than permissive parenting in European American (EA) contexts. At the heart of this controversy is a difference in the normative models of self that guide behavior. Ideas and practices prevalent in AA contexts emphasize that the person is and should be interdependent with one's close others, especially one's mother. In contrast, EA contexts emphasize the person as independent, even from one's mother. We find that AA compared with EA high school students experience more interdependence with their mothers and pressure from them, but that the pressure does not strain their relationship with their mothers. Furthermore, following failure, AAs compared with EAs are more motivated by their mothers, and AAs are particularly motivated by pressure from their mothers when it conveys interdependence.