Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother

Amy Chua’s memoir, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother (2011), depicts Chua’s experience raising two American daughters according to Chinese cultural standards. Chua is a Yale law professor specializing in globalization and ethnic conflict. She is also a second-generation Chinese American, and her husband is Jewish. Chua’s strict approach is influenced by the parenting methods used by her own parents, which clash with those of her husband. Chua’s memoir was a New York Times bestseller, popularizing the phrase “tiger mom.” The parenting methods she described sparked controversy, invoking both criticism and support from parents around the world. This guide references the 2011 Penguin edition with the new Afterword.

Plot Summary

The memoir is divided into three parts. It traces Chua’s parenting of her daughters, Sophia and Louisa ( “Lulu”), and how she and her husband Jed, who is Jewish, navigate their personal and cultural differences. The memoir follows Sophia and Lulu’s childhoods, balancing mostly chronological excerpts with vignettes from Chua and Jed’s childhoods, as well as academic contemplations about the sociological implications of racialized parenting. Chua describes cultivating the precociousness of her first child and navigating the rebelliousness of her second child, all while she and her husband experience considerable career changes.

Chua implements a strict regimen of academics and music for her children. Chua and her daughters’ personalities seem to confirm the validity of their Zodiac signs: Tiger Amy is fearless and fierce, Monkey Sophia is contemplative and hardworking, and Boar Lulu embraces confrontation. Lulu’s fearlessness is underscored by an anecdote from when Lulu was three. Lulu was misbehaving, so Chua pushed her outside into the freezing cold, telling her she was only allowed to come inside once she started behaving. Lulu preferred to remain outside rather than behave inside, setting an early precedent for her defiant personality.

In Part 1, Chua traces her family history, using this to confirm her claim of a three-generation model: the first generation of immigrants is hardworking, the second is high-achieving, and the third is born into privilege, which often leads to generational decline. Her grandparents immigrated to the Philippines, where they became wealthy. Her parents immigrated to Boston so that her father could earn his PhD at MIT; her father then became a professor at Purdue and Berkeley. Chua and her sisters represent the second, high-achieving generation. She worries that her daughters will not be high achievers since they were born into privilege, and she believes they will not have to work as hard as their grandparents or mom. Chua also worries that her daughters will be negatively influenced by their American peers, whom she perceives as spoiled children who talk back to their parents.

Chua and Jed’s career decisions impact their daughters’ ability to adapt to Chua’s strict parenting style. By the time Sophia is five, Chua has started her on the Suzuki method of piano lessons, which requires that Chua learn alongside her daughter. Chua is a harsh coach who pushes her daughter to be the best, believing that Sophia will not find it fun until she achieves a high level of mastery. At the same time, Chua suffers a professional setback; she does not succeed in her first interview at Yale Law, where her husband teaches. However, she does receive an offer to teach at Duke. She and her daughters move to North Carolina, and her husband visits on the weekends. The situation strains the family’s relationships, and Chua decides to move to NYU to reduce their distance from Jed, but her daughters struggle to adjust to their new schools: Stubborn Lulu deliberately misbehaves during her interview for an exclusive preschool, and Sophia struggles to socialize in a public school. Finally, Chua receives an offer from Yale Law, and the family is reunited in New Haven.

Chua coaches her daughters to musical and academic success, but the rigorous training schedule often causes disagreements between her and Lulu; Lulu began with piano lessons, but in an attempt to mitigate sibling rivalries, Chua switched her to the violin. The sisters perform wonderfully together at a large gala event, confirming Chua’s belief that she is doing everything right. However, the girls face other issues. They struggle to navigate their diverse racial identity after a trip to China makes them feel less Chinese. The trip makes Chua more conscious of the differences between how she and her husband were raised. Nevertheless, Sophia’s success bolsters Chua’s confidence in her parenting style: When Sophia is 10, she is invited to have her first major solo performance, and Chua throws a large party to celebrate.

Chua soon learns that she must use different methods of parenting on her daughters, since Sophia is obedient and Lulu is rebellious. Lulu refuses to perform a piano piece correctly, and Chua retaliates by trying to motivate her through various forms of punishment. Jed tries to persuade Chua to be more lenient, but she continues to push Lulu. A few weeks later, Lulu perfectly performs the piece. Chua uses this as an example of how effective harsh Chinese parenting can be. The girls complain about their mother’s strict rules, including that they are not allowed to have sleepovers, must practice their instruments for several hours a day, and are not allowed to have pets. In order to motivate Lulu to practice, Chua says the family will get a dog if Lulu performs at her very best during her upcoming recital. Tempting Lulu with a gift rather than threatening her with a punishment is a radical departure from Chua’s traditional parenting style.

Part 2 begins with the family’s purchase of a Samoyed they name Coco. Chua has high expectations since many Samoyeds are famous for amazing accomplishments, but she is disappointed to learn that Samoyeds are not ranked among the most intelligent dogs. She tries to apply her rigorous parenting style to Coco’s training to no avail. Meanwhile, the family takes many extravagant vacations around the world, but Chua insists that her daughters practice their instruments each day. When Chua’s mother-in-law, Florence, is diagnosed with leukemia and passes away, it makes her contemplate her relationship with her daughters; once, she rejected the birthday cards her daughters made for her (when they were four and seven) because she did not believe that they put enough effort into making them.

Chua’s expectations of her daughters intensify as Chua is determined to get Lulu into Juilliard and for Sophia to perform at Carnegie Hall. The family travels to upstate New York so that Lulu can meet with an exclusive teacher, and Chua hires a professional sound engineer to tape Sophia’s Carnegie Hall audition. Sophia wins the competition and is scheduled to play at Carnegie Hall the night before Lulu’s Juilliard audition. Sophia nails the performance. Lulu has food poisoning but despite this, she performs well in her audition. She is not accepted to Juilliard, but one of the judges invites Lulu to train at her private studio. The girls are invited to perform in Budapest, where Lulu throws tantrums but still performs well.

In Part 3, the family purchases a second Samoyed, Pushkin, and Chua’s schedule becomes even busier. She micromanages nearly every aspect of her daughters’ lives while thriving as a professor and frequently traveling to discuss her work. Chua intensifies Lulu’s violin practices, and Lulu cuts her hair in rebellion. Their relationship suffers as Chua forces Lulu to practice more; Lulu even refuses to toast her father at his birthday party but reluctantly agrees to play the violin at her own Bat Mitzvah.

Chua’s sister Katrin is diagnosed with leukemia, and immediately begins treatment in Boston. Her cancer is aggressive, and the first round of chemotherapy is not successful. She requires a bone marrow transplant, but neither Chua nor her other sister is a match; eventually, a bone marrow donor is located, and the transplant is successful. Katrin is able to attend Lulu’s Bat Mitzvah, where Lulu plays the violin wonderfully.

The family journeys to Russia, where Lulu’s public tantrum causes Chua to decide that Lulu should give up the violin. Chua considers the symbolism of the violin in their family and contemplates how even her mother told her to be less harsh with Lulu. Lulu decides to play the violin recreationally instead of competitively and replaces Saturday violin lessons with tennis.

Sophia continues to excel in her music: Chua and Jed host a dinner for famous judges, and Sophia wows them with her piano-playing. Lulu wins her first tennis tournament, and despite promising not to, Chua tries to control Lulu’s tennis career. The memoir ends with Chua remaining confident in her parenting choices, despite the setbacks and difficulties she has faced.

The Afterword describes the seven months after the book was published; the reception is very controversial, but both Sophia and Lulu proudly give interviews in support of their mom’s parenting style.