Thank you for posting this. I particularly liked the summary:

"There are all these new books out there portraying Asian mothers as scheming, callous, overdriven people indifferent to their kids' true interests. For their part, many Chinese secretly believe that they care more about their children and are willing to sacrifice much more for them than Westerners, who seem perfectly content to let their children turn out badly. I think it's a misunderstanding on both sides. All decent parents want to do what's best for their children. The Chinese just have a totally different idea of how to do that.

Western parents try to respect their children's individuality, encouraging them to pursue their true passions, supporting their choices, and providing positive reinforcement and a nurturing environment. By contrast, the Chinese believe that the best way to protect their children is by preparing them for the future, letting them see what they're capable of, and arming them with skills, work habits and inner confidence that no one can ever take away."

I also believe, and have posted my opinions, that with a more and more competitive world, you have to be more of a "Chinese" parent just to give your child options in the world.

I push DD on pieces, when she is first learning, not insulting but strict and demanding. And when she can get over the hurdle and play it, she will go to the piano and play it and play it and loves to play it at the recital or concert (she has started to play concerts). But getting over the hurdle of learning a difficult piece almost kills me. There is usually a fight. But there was a fight on the skating rink last night. She has been wanting to "skate". I told her it was a difficult sport in NYC but I would teach her and she would have to cooperate with working on technique just like in piano or ballet or gymnastics. She got angry with me as I started to work with her. There was much falling (though she had her leg warmers pulled up over her knees and nylon pants over that). I told her that I fell so much during practice with just tights on before I could do a jump properly. But she got to the other side, the technique improved, she got excited at her improvement. But there was a tantrum, angry words (from her) before the mid-point.

Now my child can do crossovers and a pretty good side stop and feels very proud of herself.

Ren