tiger mother | The Plaid Bag Connection

June 3, 2012
by Calvin

6 must-read links in Asian America this week

Photo by Jesslee Cuizon (Flickr/Creative Commons).

1. Opening the Kimono: Why Undergraduates Should Do Research (Huffington Post)
I agree 100% that undergraduates should do research. The learning opportunities that I got through the Endangered Languages Lab at Swarthmore and UCLA’s Summer Program for Undergraduate Research broadened my horizons and helped me figure out what I wanted to do with my life. I do not oppose the premise of this article at all.

However, Roberta Michnick Golinkoff and Kathy Hirsh-Pasek need to think about what this dated, racist, and misogynistic “open kimono” metaphor adds to their argument. Must we liken research to undressing the mysterious Oriental beauty?

2. Green Lantern’s Gay Asian Boyfriend (Angry Asian Man)
While we’re on the topic of sexualities, it appears that Green Lantern’s partner is gaysian!

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May 6, 2012
by Calvin 3 Comments

Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother – a review

The cover of the Mainland Chinese edition of the book. Title: “I am a mother in America: a Yale law professor’s parenting experience.”

This is not a critique of Amy Chua’s parenting, or of “tiger parenting” in general. There have been so many expositions on it that a simple Google search should bring up plenty of excellent blog posts and articles on that matter.

Instead, this is a review of her book, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother
***. I’d like to say that this was the book that started it all, but what really started it all was the Wall Street Journal article. Many, if not most commentators on the tiger parenting phenomenon have not actually read the book. A newspaper article simply cannot pack in the nuance of a 244 page book (late 2011 edition with new afterword), and I think this is part of the reason why the controversy was so explosive.

Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother is a heartfelt, well-written memoir on parenting. Aside from the tedious middle portion in which she switches from one daughter’s musical experiences to the other’s for several chapters, it reads well, and the short chapters make it easy to digest. Her writing can be extremely funny. For example, a fight with her husband Jed after they got their first dog, a Samoyed named Coco:

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May 1, 2012
by Calvin

Tao of Parenthood

Photo by Tambako the Jaguar (Flickr/Creative Commons).

Anh Nguyen Merrick and Grace Talusan are accepting submissions for their anthology of essays on Asian parenting, titled “Tao of Parenthood”:

There is no essential “Tao” or “way” of parenthood. This literary anthology of personal essays by and about writers of Asian ancestry will try to capture the multitude of perspectives on the impact of Asian culture, heritage, and identity on your experience as a child, on raising children, or on deciding whether to have children.

While Amy Chua’s “Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother” was a single narrative about a specific family, this anthology aims to open up the conversation. We are seeking stories to expand the perspectives of Asian parents and childhood within and beyond the American context. We welcome men and womenwriters with ancestry from Asia, Southeast Asia, Central and South Asia (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, Afghanistan, Maldives, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan). We also welcome those who are not of Asian descent, but are raising children of Asian descent or adoptees that have grown up Asian.

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