Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior

What do parents owe to their children? What do children owe to their parents?

     For example, if a child comes home with an A-minus on a test, a Western parent will most likely praise the child. The Chinese mother will gasp in horror and ask what went wrong. If the child comes home with a B on the test, some Western parents will still praise the child. Other Western parents will sit their child down and express disapproval, but they will be careful not to make their child feel inadequate or insecure, and they will not call their child "stupid," "worthless" or "a disgrace." Privately, the Western parents may worry that their child does not test well or have aptitude in the subject or that there is something wrong with the curriculum and possibly the whole school. If the child's grades do not improve, they may eventually schedule a meeting with the school principal to challenge the way the subject is being taught or to call into question the teacher's credentials. [...]

     Chinese parents demand perfect grades because they believe that their child can get them. If their child doesn't get them, the Chinese parent assumes it's because the child didn't work hard enough. That's why the solution to substandard performance is always to excoriate, punish and shame the child. The Chinese parent believes that their child will be strong enough to take the shaming and to improve from it. (And when Chinese kids do excel, there is plenty of ego-inflating parental praise lavished in the privacy of the home.)

     Chinese parents believe that their children owe them everything. Although Amy Chua does not clearly back up this claim in her article, I think I can understand where this belief comes from. For one, Chinese parents believe that in order to achieve the best future, an individuals has to constantly be on the top, so they push their children to maintain the top grades. When the child bring home a B or something, the parents express disapproval because it defies what they had been teaching their child and the only way to explain that resulting grade is that the child did not work hard enough - did not study enough - to achieve the standard A.
     In addition, parents believe that the child should be able to be strong enough to endure the punishment that comes from failure. Many Chinese parents believe that is a child cannot achieve a certain standard, then the child themselves is at fault. In a sense, it is the same concept as the Western "try your best"; however, the difference lies in the definition of best. Westerns believe that things will work out if the child passes; however Chinese parents do not wish to accept anything but the best.
     Therefore, Chinese parents believe that their children owe them everything because they had expected and pushed them to be the best since the very  beginning of thier lives.