Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother

This section highlights an element of Chua’s narrative tone that has contributed to the controversy surrounding the memoir. In Chang’s Washington Post review, she writes that in some sections on the memoir, she is “not quite sure whether Chua is being serious or deadpan.” She cites Chua’s training of Coco as an example: Chua’s conviction of the infallibility of her parenting is emphasized by her belief that the same techniques that apply to rearing children also apply to training dogs. At first, she expects Coco to demonstrate superior canine intellect and skills. After repeated training failures, she changes her view: “Although it is true that some dogs are on bomb squads or drug-sniffing teams, it is perfectly fine for most dogs not to have a profession or even any special skills” (109). Chang and other readers may be legitimately confused about whether Chua is serious or kidding when she discovers that dogs need not have “any special skills.” Yet, if Chua is serious and not kidding in this passage, it is consistent with her early model of parenting, in which she takes expectations, methods, and outcomes, to almost ridiculous extremes. If she is using self-ironizing humor, it shows that she’s not afraid to point out the ridiculousness of her all-or-nothing parenting approach, which changes and develops over time. Both readings are valid and contribute to the memoir’s thematic development, but the tonal ambiguity makes readers wary of completely trusting Chua as a narrator.

Chua’s descriptions of her relationship with her mother-in-law also call into question her narrative honesty. Besides their financial privilege and their love for Jed, Sophia, and Lulu, Chua, and Florence have very little in common. Florence’s insistence on her granddaughters’ pursuit of fun and passions stands diametrically opposed to Chua’s strict boundaries for how they live their lives. However, Chua insists that she and Florence had a wonderful relationship with little conflict, and many readers will wonder if this is an accurate depiction of a relationship between two mothers whose parenting styles could not be more different.

An important element in this section is that Jed emerges clearly for the first time in the memoir through Chua’s descriptions of his relationship with his mother. Here, he seems the most active as a member of the family; frequently, Chua’s descriptions of him render him passive and accommodating, a pleasant foil to her harshness. One of the major themes of the text is Identity and Personal Transformation as a Parent. Seeing Jed in his role as a son gives him an opportunity for character development outside his role as Chua’s husband and the more relaxed parent. Later in Parts 2 and 3, as the girls get older, Jed becomes more active in his opposition to some of Chua’s tactics, which helps her evolve away from some of her harsher methods.