CNN:

— When CNN called me this week to see if I'd share my thoughts on the backlash surrounding Amy Chua's Wall Street Journal article "Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior," I told them I would have much to say. You see, I was raised by two tigers.

My Chinese father and Vietnamese mother personified the parenting style advocated by Chua. Chua's January 8 article — based on her new memoir "Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother" —unleashed a firestorm of criticism for its unabashed assertion that the harsh stereotypically Chinese style of parenting is superior to that of the West.

This all brings to mind a small book by the Japanese author Junichiro Tanizaki (1886 — 1965). The title of this book is not answering the call of my memory, but I do recall its main content: thoughts on the differences between Japanese culture and other major cultures of the world. One part of the book explores the differences between American toilets and Japanese ones—Tanizaki sees Japanese toilets as infinitely more cultured than those in America. Another difference is between Chinese women and Japanese women—Tanizaki notes that Chinese women are significantly noisier, louder, and cantankerous than Japanese women. He admires much about Chinese culture but is deeply disturbed by the noisiness and general mouthy obstinacy of their women. I wonder if any of this has anything to do with Chua's tiger mothers? Noisiness as the root of this tigertude (a tiger does turn out to shout its tigritude)? If we can take Chua seriously, then why not take Tanizaki seriously?