Analyse af Amy Chuas 'Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior'

This paper will be an analysis and comment on Amy Chua’s article Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior, with a focus on the writer’s methods to engage the reader and the consequences of Amy Chua’s values of upbringing. In Amy Chua’s article Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior she reflects on the differences between Western and Chinese methods of upbringing.

Amy Chua focuses on the things that her own daughters, Sophia and Louisa, were not allowed to do doing their upbringing, ex “attend a sleepover, have a playdate, watch TV or play computer games…” (P.6 ll. 9-13). Chua mentions in her article that Western parents who consider themselves strict, are nothing compared to the Chinese. In China they spend 2-3 hours constantly practicing instruments with their children, compared to the Western parents, who only spend 30 minutes. Chua includes a statistic, which shows the difference between the Western and Chinese mothers, when it comes to their attitudes towards stressing children with practice. Chua mentions that the parents’ wants are more important than the children’s, and that the parents therefore have to “override” their preferences. Chua believes this is a tough but effective strategic to upbringing children. On this she concludes that Chinese parents can get away with a lot more than Western, which is an essential difference when it comes to upbringing. Chua comes up with 3 reasons to why Chinese parents can get away with a harsh way of upbringing. Firstly, she mentions that Western parents focus a lot more on the children’s self-esteem, where Chinese parents aren’t concerned about their self-esteem, but more about the children’s strength. Secondly, she refers to the Confucianism, where the children grow up in a hierarchy with them being at the bottom. Thirdly, the parents think that they know what is best for their children, and therefore they decide what the children should be doing. Chua concludes in her article that Western parents “respect their children’s individuality, encouraging them to pursue passions, supporting their choices, and providing positive reinforcement” (P. 10. ll. 176-178), where Chinese parents believe that the best way of preparing their children for the future is by practicing non-stop and strengthen their inner confidence.