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"Battle Hymn of Tiger Mom" As Social Capital Building
In this presentation, I explore Amy Chua’s "Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mom" as an account of social capital building by a second generation Chinese American. I examine Chua’s account in relation to Asian immigrant experiences, social and cultural ties, and communities in U.S. race and ethnic relations. The questions asked include: How did Chua raise her children to obtain social capital and educational opportunities in U.S. society? What were the limitations and (unintended) consequences of her strategy? How can/should we situate Chua’s account in the history of Asian American social, cultural, political, and educational experiences? Does her account overcome stereotypes against Asian Americans, or those against other racial minorities?
First, I situate Chua’s account of child rearing in the context of existing quantitative and qualitative educational research on educational achievement of Asian Americans to point out the almost missing perspective of building social capital from cross cultural contexts. Second, I analyze Chua’s account. Chua comes from an intellectually elite family, and she herself is also a well-connected intellectually elite. She has very distinct idea on “success,” and her children are successful so far, but Chua also suggests that the Chinese way of raising children will have some pit falls because it does not nurture some important American values such as creativity, leadership, and independence. I argue that Chua’s account, while being somewhat extreme, shares some common characteristics of the dominant discourse of Asian Americans as a model minority. I also suggest that analyzing the accounts of second-generation mothers is advantageous, as they know the ways social capital and networks work based on their foreign-born parents’ experiences and they are very conscious not to allow their children to lose them while becoming “American.”