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My Google Alert on “Asian American Literature” brought me Dali Zheng’s blog article, “Outmarriage Is Cultural Failure”. Even before I read it, I already had an idea of what I think the title might be leading to. And more than likely, it will not be what Zheng is writing about because it’s just [...] I was culling my digital music collection on a solo Friday night which probably influenced which songs and genres got cut. That is, I was veering towards R&B and loud rock music. I gave my last few ‘rave’ songs a listen and ditched them all. Then I came across Got Rice?, that MP3 [...] While many Asian-American bloggers and writers cried foul after reading Amy Chua’s Wall Street Journal article “Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior”, I cheered for the title and then sat down to read the WSJ article. I didn’t like the know-it-all tone to the excerpt and quickly realized that the “article” was only a [...] Have you heard the crank call that goes like this: Caller: Hi, is Wing there? Answer: No. Caller: Oh, I guess I must have Wing’ed the Wong number! Hahahahahahahah You see, my name sounds a bit like “Wing” so when my mother answered such a call decades ago when I was probably still in elementary school, [...]
I read the article, linked from Angela Tung’s blog and even left a long comment–apparently I lurk or leave long comments–while also intending to address this article with my own blog post. The WSJ article was posted two days ago, on January 8, has caused a stir on the Asian-American blogosphere, and garnered 2,501 comments to date. What a headache. I read the article, nodding, frowning, wincing, and noticed at the bottom of the article that it was an excerpt from Amy Chua’s forthcoming book, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother. Huh. And if you read the cover, there is a long “subtitle” on the cover that reads: “This was supposed to be a story of how Chinese parents are better at raising kids than Western ones. But instead it’s about a bitter clash of cultures, a fleeting taste of glory, and how I was humbled by a thirteen-year-old.” It’s kind of an awkward cover, and I wouldn’t do that for my memoir. (!) With that, I wasn’t going to take the article that seriously. I’ve read enough memoirs to know exaggeration is the spice to take an author’s story from the story-next-door to being published. The article starts with a list of what Chua’s daughters were not allowed to do/attend: sleepovers, playdates, star in a school play, watch TV/play computer games, choose their own extracurriculars, get less than an A and not be the top student, play anything but piano and violin. Continue reading Preview: Amy Chua’s Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother |
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