Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother - Amy Chua [76]
All those who helped instill the love of music in Sophia and Lulu, including Michelle Zingale, Carl Shugart, Fiona Murray, Jody Rowitsch, and Alexis Zingale of the Neighborhood Music School; the fabulous Richard Brooks of the Norwalk Youth Symphony; Annette Chang Barger, YingYing Ho,Yu-ting Huang, Nancy Jin, Kiwon Nahm, and Alexandra Newman; the exceptional Naoko Tanaka and Almita Vamos; and especially my good friend, the incomparable Wei-Yi Yang.
All of the wonderful teachers Sophia and Lulu were lucky enough to have at the Foote School (and I actually loved the Medieval Festival), especially Judy Cuthbertson and Cliff Sahlin.
On the tennis front: Alex Dorato, Christian Appleman, and Stacia Fonseca.
My students Jacqueline Esai, Ronan Farrow, Sue Guan, Stephanie Lee, Jim Ligtenberg, Justin Lo, Peter McElligott, Luke Norris, Amelia Rawls, Nabiha Syed, and Elina Tetelbaum.
Finally, my heartfelt thanks to the amazing Tina Bennett, the best agent imaginable, and to my editor and publisher, the brilliant, unsurpassed Ann Godoff.
Notes
The Chinese zodiac Tiger epigrams are from “Chinese Zodiac: Tiger,” http://pages.infinit.net/garrick/chinese/tiger.html (visited December 18, 2009), and “Chinese Zodiac: Tiger,” http://www.chinesezodiac.com/tiger.php (visited December 18, 2009).
Chapter 1: The Chinese Mother
The statistics I cite are from the following studies: Ruth K. Chao, “Chinese and European American Mothers’ Beliefs About the Role of Parenting in Children’s School Success,” Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology 27 (1996): 403-23; Paul E. Jose, Carol S. Huntsinger, Phillip R. Huntsinger, and Fong-Ruey Liaw, “Parental Values and Practices Relevant to Young Children’s Social Development in Taiwan and the United States,” Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology 31 (2000): 677-702; and Parminder Parmar, “Teacher or Playmate? Asian Immigrant and Euro-American Parents’ Participation in Their Young Children’s Daily Activities,” Social Behavior and Personality 36(2) (2008): 163-76.
Chapter 3: Louisa
The country music song I quote is “Wild One,” written by Jaime Kyle, Pat Bunch, and Will Rambeaux. My Chinese zodiac characteristics come from the following Web sites: “Monkey Facts,” http://www.chineseinkdesign.com/Chinese-Zodiac-Monkey. html (visited December 18, 2009); “The Pig/Boar Personality,” http://www.chinavoc.com/zodiac/pig/person.asp (visited December 18, 2009); and “Chinese Zodiac: Tiger,” http://pages.infinit.net/garrick/chinese/tiger.html (visited December 18, 2009).
Chapter 5: On Generational Decline
For an illuminating study of Asian “music moms,” see Grace Wang, “Interlopers in the Realm of High Culture: ‘Music Moms’ and the Performance of Asian and Asian American Identities,” American Quarterly 61(4) (2009): 881-903.
Chapter 8: Lulu’s Instrument
Brent Hugh, “Claude Debussy and the Javanese Gamelan,” available at http://brenthugh.com/debnotes/debussy-gamelan.pdf (visited December 12, 2009) (script for a lecture recital given at the University of Missouri-Kansas City in 1998).
Chapter 9: The Violin
On how to hold the violin, see Carl Flesch, The Art of Violin Playing, Book One, trans. and ed. Eric Rosenblith (New York: Carl Fischer, 2000), 3.
Chapter 12: The Cadenza
On Asian overrepresentation at top music schools:At leading music schools and departments, Asians and Asian Americans constitute from 30 to 50 percent of the student population. The numbers are often higher at the pre-college level. At highly regarded programs such as Juilliard Pre-College, Asians and Asian Americans compose more than half the student body; the two largest groups represented are students of Chinese and Korean descent studying the violin or piano.
Grace Wang, “Interlopers in the Realm of High Culture: ‘Music Moms’ and the Performance of Asian and Asian American Identities,” American Quarterly 61(4) (2009): 882.
Chapter 13: Coco
On Dr.