Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior
There are a lot of different ways to raise your child and a lot of different views on which way is right and which way is wrong. Every parent wants to believe that their way of upbringing their child is the right way. That is no different from Amy Chua. In her article “Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior”, she compares the way Chinese children and Western children are raised. From Amy Chua’s point of view Western parents are just not strict enough “All the same, even when Western parents think they’re strict, they usually don’t come close to being Chinese mothers.”. She believes in the Chinese parenting way

Amy Chua is a professor at Yale Law School in the USA. She has a husband called Jed as well as to children, Sophia and Louisa. The text is a non-fiction article. The Wall Street Journal is a newspaper only published in the Western countries and therefore we must assume that the headline “Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior” is a name that will cause outrage in the Western. She mostly speaks to Western parents or couples who either have children or is planning to.
One of Amy Chua’s ways to draw the reader is by using provocation, for example by naming the article something, which degrades the readers parenting skills. When Chua has drawn the reader’s attention she engages them further by creating a sort of credibility by using herself as an example. She gives herself, as an example because she has had experience with both types of parenting, as her husband is a Western and she, herself, is Chinese.
Amy Chua makes the reader believe in her values. She wants to prove to the reader that Chinese parenting is the best way to raise your child. She uses appeal forms to convince the reader. When she gives examples and talks about her family, she is using pathos. It is very clear in the part on page 4-5 in the article when she talks about how Lulu, her daughter, learns to play a piece on the piano. Chua do also use the appeal form called logos, when she uses facts, for example when she talks about the different study’s there has been on Western and Chinese parents way of upbringing their children “In one study of 50 Western American mothers and 48 Chinese immigrants mothers, almost 70% of the Western mothers said at either that “stressing academic success is not good for children” (…) By contrast, roughly 0% of the Chinese mothers felt the same way (…)”

By adopting Amy Chua’s method and view on how to raise your child, there would be a lot of consequences, some bad and some good. One of the more positive consequences would be very talented children. They would be smart and clever, and learn at young age that it’s important to be engaged in the choices you make. On the other hand, there are some really negative things about her way of upbringing a child. When we think back to the happier days in our childhood, it is certainly not the homework, our pushy parents or the things we were never allowed to do, we remember. It’s the endless hours of harmless playing, the many sleepovers and the social life. Most Chinese children would never be allowed to do any of these things, neither is Amy Chua’s children “Here are some things my daughters, Sophia and Louisa, were never allowed to do: attend a sleepover, have a playdate, be in a school play (…), not play the piano or violin.” If Chinese children gets to experience just a little bit of their own childhood, it is mostly in limited editions and only when they are done with their endless hours of practice. Another concern would be the Chinese children’s ability to behave in society when they grow up. If they were never allowed to “have friends” or be social, it can become really hard for them when they grow up. For example when they are going to get a job or maybe even start a family.

The biggest question is, can you really put social skills against good grades and conclude which one is the most important? The conclusion to this question is still up for debate, but do most likely depend on your culture. There is no recipe to what the right way is to raise your child. Some people seems to think there is and everyone wants to believe that the way that they are doing it, is the right way. Western parents do believe that when they are encouraging their child in a sweet and harmless, it’s the right thing to do. On the other hand Chinese parent do believe that their way to make their children practice, practice, practice until they get it right, is the best way. Maybe Westerners aren’t focused enough on the academic skills, while Chinese children are lacking social skills, so maybe the perfect way of upbringing your child, is a combination of the two?

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[ 1 ]. Page 1, sentence 27-28.
[ 2 ]. Page 2, sentence 34-44
[ 3 ]. Page 1, sentence 7-21