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I hope I don't sound too racist or anti-Semite. Why is it that when a Jewish mother does the same as the Asian mother, no one complains? I'm a Chinese btw.
by nsoonhui 16y ago
I hope I don't sound too racist or anti-Semite.
Why is it that when a Jewish mother does the same as the Asian mother, no one complains?
I'm a Chinese btw.
- nsoonhui 16y agoDownvotes! Care to explain why?
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- ghurlman 16y agoAnecdote is not the singular form of data.
- muhfuhkuh 16y agoI can only venture a guess and say that Jewish people have always isolated themselves and their practices under the purposefully exclusive and secretive shroud of Judaism and all its tenets and customs. As such, Jewish parenting practices don't fall under the harsh lens of scrutiny as does the more blatant and hand-wavy aspects of Asian parenting (the mother's "mean face" and public displays of superiority in the form of music recitals and such referred to in the article).
- kujawa 16y agoYou've never met any neurotic, therapy-prone Jews?
- drinian 16y agoNot Jewish, but I went to school with a lot of kids from successful Jewish families of varying levels of religiosity. I think at this point that the whole "overbearing Jewish parents" thing is more of a self-conscious joke than anything else, excepting perhaps some of the more religious Jewish families. I don't know if it's gotten to that point for Chinese-Americans yet. Also, by "a Chinese," what do you mean? Is there any hyphenation after that, e.g. -American, -Canadian, -Hong Kong, -Malaysian? Or are you a mainlander? There's significant cultural differences.
- Adrock 16y agoWhy single out Jews? Do you have any evidence that Jewish mothers do this in any sort of systematic way? Why not ask why when _any_ mother dies this, no one complains? And what makes you think they don't?
- jimbokun 16y agoChinese is the new Jewish. Used to be there were quotas on how many Jews to let into Ivy league schools. Now that's applied to the Asian kids, with "diversity" as the excuse. I'm also sure for every joke and stereotype of the Chinese mother, you can find an equivalent one about the Jewish mother.
- sethg 16y agoOne of my favorite MeFi comments on the original op-ed: Dear Asian-Americans, Thanks for taking over from us that stereotype of the overachieving, uncreative grind! Feel free to hand it off to someone else next generation. Should be pretty easy, since we're planning to pass you control of the media. Love, The Jews http://www.metafilter.com/99339/Why-Chinese-Mothers-Are-Superior#3457112 http://www.metafilter.com/99339/Why-Chinese-Mothers-Are-Supe...
- hristov 16y agoNo one complains ???? Have you not watched TV in the last 10 years? There are entire genres of comedy mostly devoted to jews complaining about their parents. When art historians analyze late 20th and early 21st century culture, they will certainly coin the jewish-complaining art movement, which spanned television, movies and stand up comedy for like 30 years, and is still running strong with Curb your Enthusiasm.
- krakensden 16y agoIt's also worth noting that this isn't a Jewish or Chinese phenomenon, it's an immigrant thing. There isn't much Jewish immigration to the US anymore, and cultural divisions aren't as sharp. There is, on the other hand, still strong emigration from China, which is why this behavior is now thought of as a "Chinese" phenomenon.
- strlen 16y ago> No one complains ???? Have you not watched TV in the last 10 years? There are entire genres of comedy mostly devoted to jews complaining about their parents. Was about to say that (as a Russian Jewish male), that if it weren't Jews complaining about their mothers, the literary and entertainment worlds would be far far poorer :-)
- toephu 16y agoChinese or ABC? other than physical appearance ABCs are no different then white Americans. Chinese in China are nothing like ABCs in America. ABCs are a disgrace to the Chinese race. How does it feel to look Chinese but can't even write in supposedly "your own language". They shouldn't even be called Chinese, they are Americans.
- megrimlock 16y agoHN expects a higher level of argument than unsubstantiated claims and lazy categorical insults. Please raise your game.
- tastybites 16y agoI'm Chinese, personally I could never understand how anyone could be "proud" of being a member of 1/4 of the population of Earth, which is what Chinese basically means.
- xiaoma 16y agoWatch more CCTV. You'll get a constant stream of subtle and not so subtle cues about how awesome and noble your heritage is and how your compatriots have been bullied by foreign powers throughout history.
- ZhannaSchonfeld 16y agoNo Jewish mother does what Chinese mothers do, according to the original article. I'm Jewish, by the way. No Jewish mom would deny her bubbeleh dinner. EVER. I'd like to add that I wish my parents would have pushed me more. How did Jews become a part of this, anyway?
- spamizbad 16y agoNot Jewish, but grew up with many Jewish friends - Their parents had high academic expectations but weren't anything close to "Asian Parents."
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- nimrody 16y agoI wonder if this is partly due to these families growing their kids in a "foreign" country - Chinese in the US, Jews elsewhere. These families feel their kids have to compete with the natives and may be at a disadvantage initially. Once you get the safety of feeling at home -- this sort of behavior tends to disappear (Japan being the exception here.)
- surfmike 16y agoI wouldn't say that's true, "Jewish mother stereotype" has a full length Wikipedia article of its own, although it's an old stereotype. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_mother http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_mother