Tiger Mother or Sheep Mother

It was fascinating and sickening to read about the recent raging debated about the book Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua.  However, the most telling part for me was that she was not mainland China herself, nor did her parents.

From my observation of my extended family and friends in China, such "tiger mothers" were hard to find there, at least in big cities I am familiar with.

A cousin of mine, who emigrated to Canada with his wife and daughter, who is a freshman in university now, two years ago and he or his wife talks to their daughter daily on the phone, especially in the morning, in order to wake her up.

Another cousin of mine would go to Japan with his wife to take care of their grand-daughter and cook for their son and daughter-in-law, alternative with the two-year-old baby's maternal grandparents.  Their son plans to have three children and the free babysitting/cook/maid seems endlessly long.

A third cousin of mine, he loves to stay in my parents' place on weekends, along with his wife and son.  My parents had to get up earlier than usual on Monday morning to cook for my cousin the breakfast and wake him up, so he would not be late for work.

As for my own sibling, these kind of stories need a volume of an Anna Karenina, if not War and Peace to contain.

Everywhere I see in China, if there is a tiger in a family, it is the child or grandchild.  Parents are mere sheep in front of the much doted children.