<My second fit of laughter came at the end of the article... you wanna know how to really and truly cause fits & hair-pulling in a Chinese Mother?
Simple.
Just tell her that your profoundly-gifted 7yo learned "Little White Donkey" in about a week, practicing only 20 minutes per day, and only five days in that week... having easily spent more time than that playing computer games. And that he's the top of his class in everything *including* gym with very little, if any effort required... despite being grade-accelerated twice.>
The type of Chinese mother you seem to be imagining would simply reply, 'And think what he could accomplish if he actually put forth some effort!'
I think you're missing one of the main points of the piece. It seems to me that at least one of the primary goals the (stereotypical) Chinese parents described in the article have for their children has both great moral virtue and great practical value: they want their kids to learn how to work hard, and learn the satisfaction, even joy, that comes of working hard at something.
Though I'm a 'Western' parent, my approach to child-raising is very similar to what Amy Chua (not Chuan) describes. There are two main reasons:
First, my son is a perfectionist. If he has trouble at the beginning of a learning process, he still, at age 11, tends to give up. I don't let him. So just yesterday, we had a scene at the piano that was similar to the one in Chua's article (though shorter and less intense). What would my son's approach to school, or topics he's interested in, or life in general, be if I hadn't started doing this years ago? I shudder to think.
And the benefits, to him, of learning persistence do not stop at being able to stick with something difficult. When he masters something that he previously thought was impossible, he radiates joy. So there is a huge emotional payoff -- his self-esteem, to bring up a primary concern of (stereotypical) Western parents, is in much better shape than it would be if I had let him shy away from challenge.
Second, everything came as easily to me when I was young as it seems to for your child. I don't remember having to work hard to earn great grades in school, or get high scores on standardized tests. As a result, I had a nasty shock in some college courses and in grad school when I was confronted with the necessity of really stretching my intellectual ability, whether in reading, seminar discussion or writing papers.
There's also a more selfish reason why I approve of the Eastern approach -- I teach at my kids' school, which has families from over two dozen countries, including many from South and East Asia. Their children are a joy to teach: eager for challenge, with huge banks of prior knowledge and unending curiosity about the subject. They really keep me on my toes!
