Best-selling author Amy Chua was in conversation with journalist and media critic Madhu Trehan in the Saturday morning session at the 6th Jaipur Literature Festival. Talking about her controversial book Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, Chua gave fresh and frank insights into Chinese versus western parenting and clarified some of the misconceptions about her book.
What Is Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother About?
Very early on in the session did Amy Chua clarify that her book is not a how-to guide and was never intended to be one. Rather, it was meant to be a “funny, satirical memoir” in which she shared her worst memories. Taking a dig at her critics, who often form an opinion about her or her parenting style without having read her book, she clarified that reading a handful of reviews will not do to understand it.
Chua also stressed the fact that the book was meant to be self-incriminating; after all, she gave away the things she wanted to, which were often painful memories. So instead of being made to admit by eager interviewers that yes, her daughter did compare her to Lord Voldemort, she reminds the audience that it was her who decided to put that passage in the book in the first place.
What’s the Take-away Message from Amy Chua’s Session?
Attendees surely appreciated Chua’s candour and honesty, which come out in her book as well. As she explained, the book happened as “this thing from the heart” and a huge part of it was actually written in two months. It was borne out of a low point in Chua’s life when her younger daughter Lulu rebelled and Chua’s sister was diagnosed with leukaemia.
Thus, rather than the “how-to-guide” it is often construed to be, Chua wrote the book as her own family story, a true one nonetheless that, for the sake of authenticity and truth, she never considered “sterilizing”. Still somewhat in shock over the huge attention and controversy that the book received, Chua shared how her daughters used to tease her about her writing endeavor, saying of the book that “nobody’s going to read it” as she was not a famous person. This just goes to show that you never know what’s going to go viral.
What Does Amy Chua’s Daughter Have to Say?
In a surprise move at the end, Chua’s older daughter Sophia, who just turned 16, came on stage. She was immediately bombarded with the questions that were no doubt on most of the audience members’ minds, namely "What do you think of your mother’s parenting?" and "Will you be a tiger mom?" Not shy for a response, Sophia answered the second question first and strongly confirmed it. Commenting on her mother’s parenting, she remarked that she loves the relationship she has with her mother right now, which she described as one full of respect and her mother "being a good friend".
She also clarified a passage of the book that is often quoted in horror, the part about her having chewed on the piano keys. Rather than being an act of frustration in response to her mother’s parenting style, or having to learn the piano, Sophia made it clear that it happened out of frustration with herself when she wasn’t able to produce the melody that was in her head with her hands.
No doubt to the surprise of many audience members, her worst moment growing up didn’t have anything to do with her mother. In fact, when she came home after a bad day at school, she was able to confide in her and feel better after her mother boosted her confidence.
The conversation with Amy Chua at the Jaipur Literature Festival shows that in the same way it doesn’t pay to judge a book by its cover, it doesn’t do justice to an author to go only by book reviews rather than actually reading his or her book.
Simone Preuss - Simone is a freelance writer, editor and translator who decided to go solo after a successful career in publishing. That was more than ...
