“虎妈”蔡美儿接受美国ABC电视台采访

沪江小编：虎妈，美国耶鲁大学的华裔教授，原名蔡美儿。她对两个女儿严厉的教导方式让不少美国家长感到惊讶……虎妈的两个女儿成绩优异、还有不少特长，绝对符合大众眼中的“优等生”标准。这也让美国教育界对中国式教育产生了更多的兴趣。近日虎妈就推出了自己的新书《虎妈战书》。推广中国式家长教育方式。

What kind of a mother hauls her then-7-year-old daughter's dollhouse out to the car and tells the kid that the dollhouse is going to be donated to the Salvation Army piece by piece if the daughter doesn't master a difficult piano composition by the next day? What kind of a mother informs her daughter that she's "garbage"? And what kind of mother believes, as Chua tells readers she does, that: "an A- is a bad grade; ... the only activities your children should be permitted to do are those in which they can eventually win a medal; and ... that medal must be gold"?
什么样的母亲会让自己只有7岁大的女儿把玩具屋扔到车内，并告诉女儿说明天如果不能把那首高难度钢琴曲练出来就要把玩具屋弄成一块一块的捐给救世军？怎样的母亲会说女儿是“垃圾”？犹如蔡美儿在书里写的：“A-不是个好成绩；...孩子们唯一应该被准许去做的事情就是拿奖牌，而且奖牌还要一定要是金牌”？”

Chinese parents can do things that would seem unimaginable — even legally actionable — to Westerners. Chinese mothers can say to their daughters, "Hey fatty — lose some weight." By contrast, Western parents have to tiptoe around the issue, talking in terms of "health" and never ever mentioning the f-word, and their kids still end up in therapy for eating disorders. ... Western parents are concerned about their children's psyches. Chinese parents aren't. They assume strength, not fragility, and as a result they behave very differently.
对西方人来说，中国父母的某些行为是难以想象的——有时候过分到孩子都可以起诉自己的父母。中国妈妈可以跟女儿说，“喂，胖孩子，该减肥了。”相反的，在这个问题上，西方父母只能小心翼翼地以“健康”为由跟自己的孩子交涉，但是西方父母绝对不会提到任何和“胖”有关的词语。结果就是孩子们继续狂吃海。……西方家长会比较关心孩子们的心理，而中国父母则不太会关心这方面。中国家长在孩子面前表现得强势、坚强，因此他们的行为和西方家长行为会有很大的不同。