RollnSmoke Reviews: BATTLE HYMN OF THE TIGER MOTHER by Amy Chua

BATTLE HYMN OF THE TIGER MOTHER by Amy Chua (Penguin, 2011)

An ambitious Professor of Law at Yale University, daughter of Chinese immigrant parents and mother of two, Amy Chua builds a defense for results and skills-oriented Chinese parenting – ruthless, where parents have “higher dreams and higher regard” for their children -- over Western parenting – which she presents as indulgent, choice-offering and overly-nurturing of self-esteem. With astonishing energy, an eye fixated on achievement and relentless drive, Chua cannot and will not let up on her two daughters who emerge as accomplished musicians and straight-A students. Ever “jacking up the pressure” on her children, Chua clearly and shamelessly lays out her parenting approach which her own daughter describes as “compulsively cruel” (8/10).