Notes from an American Mother in Beijing

Amy Chua raised the hackles of a whole legion of American moms when she dreamed up the title of her recent incendiary Wall Street Journal essay, "Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior." She touched a nerve. So much of what we American mothers read these days is about the demise of schools here in the States and the reign of the Chinese student. We read the buzz over the Shanghainese fifteen-year-olds who blew away the American field last month in an international assessment test, and we worry. Then Chua comes along and tells us how to really get things done.

When I lived in China, I was the American mother on the playground—the one looking for all the Chinese mothers, and where were they anyway?