Analyse af Amy Chuas 'Why Chinese mothers are superior'

Have you ever wondered why Chinese children are doing so well in school? How come they are always among the top students? What makes them do so well? The answer to all those questions is how they were raised. Chinese parenting has been the most successful way for their children to achieve success as well according to the article In the article Why Chinese mothers are superior by Amy Chua from January 8th 2011 we learn about her method to her children’s success and her opinion on how western parents raise their children. In her article Chua talks about how children can obtain success, and that would be by raising them with discipline. Chua claims westerner and Chinese have very different ways of raising their children. Chua thinks western parents are too kind towards their children and they care too much about their self-esteem. That would not be the correct mind-set according to Chua. If children does not have the best grade possible, it would seem like slacking or the child has not tried hard enough. The Chinese parents would then proceed to educate their child until the child would get top grade. “If a Chinese child gets a B - which would never, happen - there would first be a screaming, hair-tearing explosion. The devastated Chinese mother would then get dozens, maybe hundreds of practice tests and work through them with her child for as long as it takes to get the grade up to an A”. Chinese mothers show commitment to their children and invest a lot of time with them. But if the child does not follow orders, which children often do, they would be punished. Parents would often call them trash or garbage, and while some might find that a bit harsh, Chinese mothers would say it is the only way straighten up their child. If a child would get a mediocre grade the western parents would still praise the child but Chinese mothers would not. In the start of the article she tries to catch the viewers’ attention by irritating them. She does so by showing a list of things their children are not allowed to do. By showing these points it infuriates the reader and by that she has gained their attention. Her form of appeal used for her article would be Patos as she brings a lot of emotion through her argumentation. As we read into her article she brings in her own experience to build trust. She uses this trust to convince the reader her method is superior. “Once when I was young - maybe more than once - when I was extremely disrespectful to my mother, my father angrily called me ‘garbage’ in our native Hokkien dialect,” she continued, “But it didn’t damage my self-esteem or anything like that.” Her experience shows she has been through it before mental damage. As readers we build up respect towards the author due to her resistance towards all the pressure she had gotten; and therefore she performs the same method towards her child. Chua mentions that she did the same thing to her child “As an adult, I once did the same thing to Sophia, calling her garbage in English when she acted extremely disrespectfully towards me.” She believes it would straighten her up like it did to herself. And as she has already established our trust, we begin to look down on those who oppose. When she mentions how much parents spend their time on the children, she tries to gain the readers' sympathy. The readers learn how much a Chinese parent sacrifice for their own children. “Chinese parents believe their kids owe them everything. The reason for this is little unclear, but it’s probably a combination of Confucian filial piety and the fact that the parents have sacrificed and done so much for their children (and it’s true that Chinese mothers get in the trenches putting in long grueling hours personally tutoring, training, interrogating and spying on their kids).” She wants the readers to feel sympathy towards her. When gaining sympathy her arguments would seem more solid and trustworthy. Through her argumentation she attempts make the readers watch the Chinese method a tad easier. We won’t judge the method as a cruel way to raise children. But what seem to be a problem might be the consequences of this method. Chua hasn’t mentioned any consequences as she herself didn’t experience any trouble with growing up. Her method is a great way to force their child to perform top notch, but not all children are the same. Since children are so different; children, raised with the norm that everything has to be perfect, might build a fear for not living up to their parents' demands. Those children will be unstable when they grow up Children behave differently and therefore might have a different outcome when raised in that manner. When children become neglected from social activities they won’t learn to handle being social when they grow up. At the end of her article she writes a story about her daughter Lulu. As parent you shouldn’t neglect your children even if your desire seems more fitting. Chua tells the reader she began feeding her child until she could play a piece on the piano. By doing this method to raise your children you’re putting your child at risk, both mentally and physically, just for something so ridiculous. The Chinese method of raising children is more like teaching an adult the rules of adult life. I think it’s good to force children to perform well but they should be allowed to enjoy the things while being young. Children shouldn’t be forced to do what they don’t desire. It might have some limits on what they are allowed to do but not in the same manner Chua has done. All in all the method is great to some extent but shouldn’t be a preferred way to raise their children. Children should be raised with comfort and should feel safe.