Book Club Discussion Questions for Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua

Book Club Discussion Questions

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For supplemental discussion material see our Beyond the Book article, The Tiger Mother Media-Storm and our BookBrowse Review of Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother.

Please be aware that this discussion guide will contain spoilers!

1. How do you feel about the approaches Amy used in raising her children? Are there any of them you think you could adopt and use yourself? Do you think you could have the discipline and self-sacrifice to carry them out to the same extent? And would you want to?
   
   
2. For mothers of daughters: How well, or can you, relate to the following passage: (page 112): "The thing about Lulu and me is that we're at once incompatible and really close. We can have a great time but also hurt each other deeply. We always know what the other is thinking - which form of psychological torture is being deployed - and we both can't help ourselves. We both tend to explode and then feel fine. Jed has never understood how one minute Lulu and I will be screaming death threats at each other, and the next minute we'll be lying in bed, Lulu's arms wrapped around me, talking about violins or reading and laughing together."
   
   
3. There is very little about Amy's husband in the book. How do you think he handled this culture clash?
   
   
4. Amy Chua's daughters achieve musical success early in their lives. How does that validate Chua's child-rearing strategies? Would these strategies work in a non-Asian family setting?
   
   
5. Do you think Amy Chua presents an accurate picture of Chinese parenting or she is a particularly controlling and driven individual?
   
   
6. What do you think Amy Chua's motive to write this book might be?
   
   
7. As children we often don't want to do what may be difficult or boring but we become better with practice as Amy's children did with the violin and piano. Is there anything that you wish now that you had been required to do more of when you were a child so you could be better at it now.
   

Questions suggested by BookBrowse members.

Unless otherwise stated, this discussion guide is reprinted with the permission of Penguin Press. Any page references refer to a USA edition of the book, usually the trade paperback version, and may vary in other editions.