Amy Chua Says That Wall Street Journal Column Wasn’t Her Doing

By Arturo R. García

In a pair of interviews posted since Latoya’s column on Amy Chua’s recent Wall Street Journal piece, Chua elaborated on both the themes of the book it was taken from, Battle Hymn Of The Tiger Mother, and said the newspaper mis-represented her book.

Chua told the San Francisco Chronicle’s Jeff Yang she was “very surprised” by the excerpt that ran in the Journal, entitled “Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior,” saying she had limited input into editing it, and none before it was nearly about to be published. She told Yang:

The Journal basically strung together the most controversial sections of the book. And I had no idea they’d put that kind of a title on it. But the worst thing was, they didn’t even hint that the book is about a journey, and that the person at beginning of the book is different from the person at the end — that I get my comeuppance and retreat from this very strict Chinese parenting model.

Yang describes Battle Hymn as riveting, and Chua’s voice as “slightly rueful, frequently self-deprecating and entirely aware of its’ author’s enormities. It’s a little, but not quite, like a Chelsea Handler book — if Chelsea Handler were a Chinese American law professor and Momzilla of two.”

Yang also quoted Disgrasian’s Jen Wang’s take on the book:

The book isn’t a how-to manual, as the Journal excerpt would have you believe — it’s a memoir. As such, you’ll see some truth in it, and you’ll also see glaring blind spots and a sometimes-woeful lack of self-examination. That truth, instead of making you hate Chua, will cause you to reflect on your own upbringing — and your own parenting style, good and bad. And I think this is especially important for Asian Americans who feel that they were parented Chua-style, and are bitter about it — that is to say, most of us.

Chua uses a similar description for the book in talking to Yang, calling it “a coming of age book for parents.” She also refused to retract her statements about “Chinese parenting.” In another interview, with Time’s Belinda Luscombe, she called that parenting style, “tough immigrant parenting,” and said it wasn’t the same as being a “helicopter mom”:

As I understand it that term means the parent is hovering over the child and talking to teachers and principals. When I was little, my father used to say that if something doesn’t seem fair, you prove yourself by working twice as hard and being twice as good. Now I think if a kid in school does badly on a test you rush into the school, you question the teacher and the curriculum. I think the kids are strong to be able to hear “Start with yourself, maybe you didn’t work hard enough.”

Neither story touches on the kind of anecdotes that have been posted on its’ respective comments thread, of the tragic effects “tough parenting” can have on a family. Let me repost this comment Elton left in Latoya’s thread:

My big sister was what I used to jealously call “every Asian parent’s wet dream come true” (excuse the crassness, but it really does sum up the resentment I used to feel towards her). She got straight As. Skipped 5th grade. Perfect SAT score. Varsity swim team. Student council. Advanced level piano. Harvard early admission. An international post with the Boston Consulting Group in Hong Kong before returning to the U.S. for her Harvard MBA. Six figure salary. Oracle. Peoplesoft. Got engaged to a PhD. Bought a home. Got married.

Her life summed up in one paragraph above.

Her death summed up in one paragraph below.

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