Why Chinese Mothers are Superior, Wall street journal saturday edition. The marketing tactic that aims to generate publicity for Amy Chua’s book, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother.
Well, it sure worked! A ton of blog responses and over 2000 comments on WSJ at this point.
OMG! This was even hotter than the “Motrin Mom” scandal that literally shut down McNeil’s motrin website over a weekend a couple of years ago. Yea, do you remember that? Those of you who are moms on twitter probably do. Basically Motrin came out with a YouTube commercial about how moms who wear babies get so many aches. That really miffed the moms who wear babies. To the point where they threatened to boycott the company and the product, identified the ad agency who made that ad (and even the budget for that ad), and flooded the VP (who’s a mom herself) with angry emails. Within 48 hours McNeil pulled off the YouTube ad. [Google Motrin Moms if you are curious]
Anyway, back to Amy Chua’s controversial marketing methods.
Chua shows she can’t be shut down; this frenzy has fueled media appearances on the Today show. For what it’s worth, the marketing tactic works, if you don’t care “at what cost” in the big picture. At this point I wonder if Chua was at all stunned by the vehement outpouring of comments, or if she would say that she engineered this whole thing, and all of our anger and upset merely helped her achieve the goal (of publicity for her book)!
Posts around the Blogosphere
Here’s a blog post from Betty Ming Liu:
http://bettymingliu.com/2011/01/parents-like-amy-chua-are-the-reason-why-asian-americans-like-me-are-in-therapy/
If you blogged or posted about this article and want to share your own experiences, please add your blog post in the comment section!
Is Amy Chua right when she explains “Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior” in an op/ed in the Wall Street Journal?
http://www.quora.com/Parenting/Is-Amy-Chua-right-when-she-explains-Why-Chinese-Mothers-Are-Superior-in-an-op-ed-in-the-Wall-Street-Journal
Jane Chin, Ph.D.
12 Jan 11 at 9:50 am
I found the above link really helpful. Another of the more thoughtful responses to Amy Chua that I’ve seen is here:
“Amy Chua’s Chinese Tiger Mother and the Myth of the Model Minority”
http://chinahopelive.net/2011/01/12/amy-chuas-chinese-tiger-mother-and-the-myth-of-the-model-minority/
Joel
13 Jan 11 at 3:29 am
Suddenly Amy Chua tones down her writing and becomes politically correct.
http://blogs.wsj.com/ideas-market/2011/01/13/the-tiger-mother-responds-to-readers/
Again, this only goes to show that her original intent was to market her book by leveraging the “shock and awe” factor and make sweeping stereotypes that would get readers to click and respond, generate a lot of buzz, and then have an opportunity to say “wait… what i REALLY meant to say was….”
The original article sounded NOWHERE near what Chua said as “poking fun at myself”.
Jane Chin, Ph.D.
13 Jan 11 at 6:05 pm
The marketing tactic is clear but I hope parents won’t follow her advice since this approach may have dangerous consequences as far as the natural development of their children is concerned.
Lorne Marr
18 Jan 11 at 9:15 am
The buzz over the water cooler is off the charts. I think Amy Chua’s rationale for pushing her kids is still not completely Eastern. A true Chinese Mom pushes her kids to avoid bringing shame to the family.
For a parody of the WSJ article, check out http://chinese-wives.blogspot.com/2011/01/why-chinese-wives-are-superior.html
A. L.
21 Jan 11 at 12:49 pm