Remember that Tiger Mom thing a few months back? If you don't- a few months back a woman, Amy Chua, published a book called Battle Hymn of a Tiger Mom. An excerpt of the book ended up in the Washington Post and caused a bit of a debate within parenting circles. In the book the author, a female east Asian, basically writes about how parents in the west are too easy on their kids and how east Asian parenting styles are better. A shitstorm ensued.
Out of all the articles that came out of the whole debate I remember reading one from a east Asian man who was critical of not only Chua's parenting style but also the premise she used an Asian parenting style on her kids and that no such thing exist really. The article was linked from CNN so it wasn't from some crank from east bumblefuck. I wish I could find it but I can't.
Anyway in the article the author claims that the idea of an east Asian parenting style is just a result of U.S. immigration policy. His claim was that during the cold war the U.S. started giving away passports to as many scientists and other educated folks from India and east Asia as it could. That parts true. The brain drain thing is pretty well documented. He links this with the Indian and east Asian model minority that occurs in the U.S. by pointing out that we were drawing from an already well off and educated aristocracy who pushed off their expectations and habits on their children. He also explains that in the time between the cold war ending and now our immigration policy makes sure we kept drawing from cream of the Indian and east Asian crop. Considering the population size of Indian and places like China, Japan, Indonesia, Philippines etc. the fact that we only allow 20K people from each country to legally immigrant here means we get only the well off and well connected ones.
The author further goes on to point out that despite Chinese schools being notoriously more difficult than American schools when polled most Chinese parents wanted their school system to be more like ours with a stronger focus on art, music, sports etc. Basically the idea that Indians and East Asians like to create highly educated robots is a myth that started during the Cold War and if we started letting more people from those areas immigrant here those groups would lose their model minority status.
So could anyone confirm or debunk this? His premise makes sense but I would like to hear more from some people who either live or have lived in India and the far East. Sorry for the typos, bad syntax etc. I can't be arsed to proofread a thread that'll get like 2 serious replies.
So yeah.
Out of all the articles that came out of the whole debate I remember reading one from a east Asian man who was critical of not only Chua's parenting style but also the premise she used an Asian parenting style on her kids and that no such thing exist really. The article was linked from CNN so it wasn't from some crank from east bumblefuck. I wish I could find it but I can't.
Anyway in the article the author claims that the idea of an east Asian parenting style is just a result of U.S. immigration policy. His claim was that during the cold war the U.S. started giving away passports to as many scientists and other educated folks from India and east Asia as it could. That parts true. The brain drain thing is pretty well documented. He links this with the Indian and east Asian model minority that occurs in the U.S. by pointing out that we were drawing from an already well off and educated aristocracy who pushed off their expectations and habits on their children. He also explains that in the time between the cold war ending and now our immigration policy makes sure we kept drawing from cream of the Indian and east Asian crop. Considering the population size of Indian and places like China, Japan, Indonesia, Philippines etc. the fact that we only allow 20K people from each country to legally immigrant here means we get only the well off and well connected ones.
The author further goes on to point out that despite Chinese schools being notoriously more difficult than American schools when polled most Chinese parents wanted their school system to be more like ours with a stronger focus on art, music, sports etc. Basically the idea that Indians and East Asians like to create highly educated robots is a myth that started during the Cold War and if we started letting more people from those areas immigrant here those groups would lose their model minority status.
So could anyone confirm or debunk this? His premise makes sense but I would like to hear more from some people who either live or have lived in India and the far East. Sorry for the typos, bad syntax etc. I can't be arsed to proofread a thread that'll get like 2 serious replies.
So yeah.
Last edited by Macbeth (2011-06-25 11:31:44)
