The Twenty-Six Malignant Gates

     Between the mother-daughter relationships we see in "The Twenty-Six Malignant Gates" and between Amy Chua's relationship with her kids, I noticed some similarities and differences. One of the similarities between the two is that the mother never seems to explain anything to the daughter - that the mother would make a claim directed towards the daughter but never gives the daughter the explanation of why. In the short introductory piece, the mother remained silent when the daughter asked about the twenty-six bad things that her mother had previously spoken about:

     "It is written in Chinese. You cannot understand it. That is why you must listen to me."
     "What are they, then?" the girl demanded. "Tell me the twenty-six bad things."
     But the mother sat kitting in silence.
     "What twenty-six!" shouted the girl.
     The mother still did not answer her.

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
• complain about not being in a school play
• watch TV or play computer games
• choose their own extracurricular activities
• get any grade less than an A
• not be the No. 1 student in every subject except gym and drama
• play any instrument other than the piano or violin
• not play the piano or violin.

 Although in both, the mother would bring up advise or make a rule that limits the child to something but they never take time to explain to the kids why they have to do what is told to do by their parents. The mother in the introductory piece does not tell her daughter of the dangers and Amy Chua does not give her kids a reason for having them obey such requirements.
     In a sense, I do think that Amy Tan's novel endorses Chua's arguments about motherhood because of similar expectations. Amy Chua wants her kids to be prodigies just as Jing-mei Woo's mother wishes her daughter to be a prodigy at something. With the requirements from Chua, mentioned above, she mostly limits her children so that they mostly have to focus on studies and being in first place. For Jing-mei, her mother continuously believed that her daughter can become famous for something, which eventually leads to Jing-mei playing the piano - an irony since Chua also has her kids play that instrument.Similar to the lack to explanations between the mother and daughter in "The Twenty-Six Malignant Gates," the relationship between Amy Chua and her kids are also filled with the lack of explanations: