If you follow the kinds of public conversations that linger over "work-life balance" and "over-structured childhood"—that is, the chatter on the jittery leading-edge of upper-middle-class, 30- and 40-something mothers—or if you are Facebook friends with someone who does, you have probably already encountered Amy Chua's controversial piece in the Wall Street Journal, "Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior." The provocative title and deliberately outrageous content of the piece have scored nearly wall-to-wall coverage in all media outlets, major and minor, over the past week.
Chua's article, an excerpt from and promotion for her new book Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, which I have not read, is overflowing with juicy, excerpt-able glimpses of the extreme methods she used in pushing her two daughters toward excellence in music performance and academics. Bloggers and columnists obligingly took the bait, and the article elicited outrage and defensive rebuttals. For her part, Chua seemed unprepared for the ferocity of the response, and much of her airtime over the past week has been spent back-pedaling and qualifying her remarks.
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