"Tiger Mother" Amy Chua Defends Herself to Stephen Colbert

By Matt Cherette  |  January 26, 2011 | 2:21pm
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On tonight’s Report, Amy Chua—the controversial author of Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother—was Stephen Colbert’s guest. The interview was a mix of funny and serious, with defenses by Chua of her parenting throughout. Here are some highlights.

At the beginning of the interview, Chua described how she felt about the negative reaction that some have had to her strict parenting memoir:


Then, Colbert asked Chua to respond to accusations that she believes the Chinese method of parenting is superior to other methods (when describing how she backpedaled a bit on the strictness by allowing her daughter to play tennis instead of the violin, the audience booed Chua):


Later, Chua described some of the values she tried to instill in her children through her parenting methods, and also responded to Colbert’s question of whether or not she parented by forcing her children to do things that she herself was interested in:


Finally, Colbert asked Chua, “If there is one misconception about this book, what would it be?” Here’s her answer:


[The Colbert Report]

 
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