Amy Chua

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Amy Chua
Amy Chua 2012 Shankbone 2.JPG
Chua in April 2012
BornAmy Lynn Chua
(1962-10-26) October 26, 1962 (age 61)
Champaign, Illinois, U.S.
Occupation
  • Corporate lawyer
  • legal scholar
  • writer
Education Harvard University (AB, JD)
SubjectEconomics, international relations, law, parenting, political science, sociology
Notable works
Spouse Jed Rubenfeld
Children2
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese 蔡美兒
Simplified Chinese 蔡美儿 [1]
Website
amychua.com

Amy Lynn Chua (born October 26, 1962), also known as "the Tiger Mom", [2] [3] [4] is an American corporate lawyer, legal scholar, and writer. She is the John M. Duff Jr. Professor of Law at Yale Law School with an expertise in international business transactions, law and development, ethnic conflict, and globalization. [5] She joined the Yale faculty in 2001 after teaching at Duke Law School for seven years. Prior to teaching, she was a corporate law associate at Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton.

Contents

Chua is also known for her parenting memoir Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother . In 2011, she was named one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people, one of The Atlantic 's Brave Thinkers, and one of Foreign Policy 's Global Thinkers. [6]

Early life and education

Chua was born in Champaign, Illinois, to ethnic Chinese-Filipino parents with Hoklo ancestry who emigrated from the Philippines. Her parents raised her speaking Hokkien. [7] Her father, Leon O. Chua, is a professor of electrical engineering and computer science at the University of California, Berkeley. [8] [9] His ancestral hometown is Quanzhou, Fujian. [10]

Chua's mother was born in China in 1936, before moving to the Philippines at the age of two. [7] She subsequently converted to Catholicism in high school and graduated from the University of Santo Tomas, with a degree in chemical engineering, summa cum laude . [7]

Chua was raised Catholic and lived in West Lafayette, Indiana. [11] When she was 8 years old, her family moved to Berkeley, California.

Chua described herself as an "ugly kid" during her school days; she was bullied in school for her foreign accent (which she has since lost) and was the target of racial slurs from several classmates. [12] She went to El Cerrito High School, in El Cerrito, where she graduated as valedictorian of her class. [13] In college, she graduated Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum laude with an A.B. in Economics in 1984 from Harvard College, where she was named an Elizabeth Cary Agassiz Scholar and a John Harvard Scholar. [14] She obtained her J.D. cum laude in 1987 from Harvard Law School, [15] where she was the first Asian American officer of the Harvard Law Review , serving as executive editor. [16] [17]

After law school, Chua clerked for Chief Judge Patricia M. Wald on the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. [17]

Books

Chua has written five books: two studies of international affairs, a parenting memoir, a book on ethnic-American culture and its correlation with socio-economic success within the United States, and a book about the role of tribal loyalties in American politics and its foreign policy. [18]

Her first book, World on Fire: How Exporting Free Market Democracy Breeds Ethnic Hatred and Global Instability (2003), explores the ethnic conflict caused in many societies by disproportionate economic and political influence of "market dominant minorities" and the resulting resentment in the less affluent majority. World on Fire, which was a New York Times bestseller, selected by The Economist as one of the Best Books of 2003, [19] and named by Tony Giddens in The Guardian as one of the "Top Political Reads of 2003", [20] examines how globalization and democratization since 1989 have affected the relationship between market-dominant minorities and the wider population.

Her second book, Day of Empire: How Hyperpowers Rise to Global Dominance – and Why They Fall (2007), examines seven major empires and posits that their success depended on their tolerance of minorities.

Chua's third book, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother , published in January 2011, is a memoir about her parenting journey using strict Confucianist child rearing techniques, which she claims is typical for Chinese immigrant parents. [21] Despite being sometimes interpreted as a how-to manual for parenting, the book has been critically viewed as an account "of how children can become rebellious and alienated when one-size-fits-all education philosophies are applied, regardless of their personality or aptitudes." [22] It was an international bestseller in the United States, South Korea, Poland, Israel, Germany, United Kingdom, and China, and has been translated into 30 languages. [23] [24] The book also received a huge backlash and media attention and ignited global debate about different parenting techniques and cultural attitudes that foster such techniques. [25] The uproar provoked by the book included death threats and racial slurs directed at Chua, and calls for her arrest on child-abuse charges. [12]

Chua taught J. D. Vance during at least his first year at Yale Law. She persuaded him to write his memoir Hillbilly Elegy, which became a New York Times bestseller and a film starring Amy Adams and Glenn Close. [26]

Her fourth book, co-written with husband Jed Rubenfeld, [27] is The Triple Package: How Three Unlikely Traits Explain the Rise and Fall of Cultural Groups in America (published in February 2014). [28] The book received mixed reviews. Lucy Kellaway, writing for Financial Times , called it "the best universal theory of success I've seen." [29] Emma Brockes, writing in The Guardian, commended the book for "draw[ing] on eye-opening studies of the influence of stereotypes and expectations on various ethnic and cultural groups ... The authors' willingness to pursue an intellectual inquiry that others wouldn't is bracing." [30] However, The Guardian also published a satirical review-cum-summary written by John Crace, who used one of the Triple Package traits—impulse control—to tell potential readers to "resist this book." [31] The book was also roundly criticized for cultural stereotyping and ignoring additional factors such as intergenerational wealth transmission. [2] [32] [33] Forbes writer Susan Adams criticized it for racist overtones and said Chua's suggestion that certain cultural groups are more conventionally successful than others given her "three-pronged prescription [for success]" is at best "pop psychology." [3] An empirical study by Joshua Hart and Christopher Chabris found that "[t]here was little evidence for the Triple Package theory." [34]

In February 2018, Chua's fifth book was published. Titled Political Tribes: Group Instinct and the Fate of Nations , it examines how group loyalty often outweighs any other ideological considerations. She argues that the failure to recognize the place of group loyalty has played a major role in the failure of US foreign policy and the rise of Donald Trump. The book received overwhelmingly positive reviews from across the political spectrum. David Frum, writing for The New York Times , praised Chua for her willingness to approach "the no-go areas around which others usually tiptoe." [35] The Washington Post described the book as "compact, insightful, disquieting, yet ultimately hopeful," [36] and Ezra Klein called the book "fascinating" on his podcast. [37]

The book received a few criticisms. The Guardian called it "a well-intentioned book that never quite comes together." [38] The Financial Times stated that it was "an important book" and supported Chua's argument "that America's liberal elite has contributed to Trump's rise by failing to acknowledge its own sense of tribalism"; it did, however, also state that it left the "crucial question" of how to create a "non-tribal world" unanswered. [39]

Yale Law School

Chua is known for mentoring students from marginalized communities and for helping students get judicial clerkships. [40] In 2018, HuffPost and The Guardian alleged that Chua had advised female students to dress "outgoing" when seeking employment. [41] Chua denied this claim. [42] In 2019, Chua agreed not to drink or socialize with students outside of class for a limited time. [40] [43] In 2021, Chua was accused of drunkenly partying with students and federal judges. She agreed to a one-year restriction of her teaching duties as a small group professor. [40]

Personal life

Chua and her daughters at the 2011 Time 100 gala Amy Chua Tiger Mom Daughters 2011 Shankbone.JPG
Chua and her daughters at the 2011 Time 100 gala

Chua lives in New Haven, Connecticut, and is married to Yale Law School professor Jed Rubenfeld. She has two daughters, Sophia and Louisa ("Lulu"). [7] The former appeared in the New Yorker in 2014 as a Harvard member of Kappa Alpha Theta and ROTC. [44]

Bibliography

Related Research Articles

<i>World on Fire</i> (book) 2003 book by Amy Chua

World on Fire: How Exporting Free Market Democracy Breeds Ethnic Hatred and Global Instability is a 2003 book by American legal scholar Amy Chua. It is an academic study of ethnic and sociological divisions in the economic and political systems of various societies. The book discusses the concept of "market-dominant minorities", which it defines as ethnic minority groups who, under given market conditions, tend to prosper, flourish, and dominate economically, often significantly, over other, often ethnic majority groups in the country.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yale Law School</span> Law school in New Haven, Connecticut, US

Yale Law School (YLS) is the law school of Yale University, a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. It was established in 1824. The 2020–21 acceptance rate was 4%, the lowest of any law school in the United States. Its yield rate of 87% is also consistently the highest of any law school in the United States.

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Stereotypes of East Asians in the United States are ethnic stereotypes found in American society about first-generation immigrants and their American-born descendants and citizenry with East Asian ancestry or whose family members who recently emigrated to the United States from East Asia, as well as members of the Chinese diaspora whose family members emigrated from Southeast Asian countries. Stereotypes of East Asians, analogous to other ethnic and racial stereotypes, are often erroneously misunderstood and negatively portrayed in American mainstream media, cinema, music, television, literature, video games, internet, as well as in other forms of creative expression in American culture and society. Many of these commonly generalized stereotypes are largely correlative to those that are also found in other Anglosphere countries, such as in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom, as entertainment and mass media are often closely interlinked between them.

Jed L. Rubenfeld is an American legal scholar. He is a Professor of Law at Yale Law School. He is an expert on constitutional law, privacy, and the First Amendment. He joined the Yale faculty in 1990 and was appointed to a full professorship in 1994. Rubenfeld has also served as a United States Representative at the Council of Europe and has taught as a visiting professor at both the Stanford Law School and the Duke University School of Law. He is also the author of two novels, including the million-copy bestseller, The Interpretation of Murder.

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<i>Day of Empire</i> 2007 book by Amy Chua

Day of Empire: How Hyperpowers Rise to Global Dominance - and Why They Fall is a 2007 book by Yale Law School professor Amy Chua.

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<i>Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother</i> 2011 book by Amy Chua

Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother is a book by American author and law professor Amy Chua that was published in 2011. It quickly popularized the concept and term "tiger mother".

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<i>The Triple Package</i>

The Triple Package: How Three Unlikely Traits Explain the Rise and Fall of Cultural Groups in America is a book published in 2014 by two professors at Yale Law School, Amy Chua and her husband, Jed Rubenfeld. Amy Chua is also the author of the 2011 international bestseller, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother.

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<i>Tiger Mom Blues</i> Hong Kong TV series or program

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References

  1. Chabris, Christopher; Hart, Joshua (April 8, 2018). 别迷信虎妈的成功学 [How Not to Explain Success]. The New York Times (in Chinese). Retrieved April 4, 2018.
  2. 1 2 "Tiger Mom's New Book Stirs Up Culture Wars". Yahoo Shine. January 7, 2014.
  3. 1 2 "Tiger Mom Says Some Nationalities and Religions Are Superior to Others". Forbes.com. January 6, 2014.
  4. "Daughter of 'tiger mom' Chua picked as Kavanaugh law clerk". AP NEWS. 2019-06-10. Retrieved 2019-06-12.
  5. "Amy Chua - Yale Law School". law.yale.edu. Retrieved 2018-10-07.
  6. Chua, Amy. "About Amy". AmyChua.com. Archived from the original on 2015-05-16. Retrieved 15 May 2015.
  7. 1 2 3 4 Chua, Amy (2011). Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother. Penguin Press. p.  14. ISBN   978-1594202841.
  8. Chua, Leon O. (September 1971). "Memristor - The Missing Circuit Element". IEEE Transactions on Circuits Theory (IEEE) 18 (5): 507–519.
  9. "Leon O. Chua Professor Emeritus". Berkeley EECS. Retrieved 9 November 2022.
  10. @amychua (May 12, 2014). "Had Mother's Day dinner @ the studio of "Gunpowder Artist" Cai Guo-Qiang, who is from my ancestral hometown Quanzhou!" (Tweet) via Twitter.
  11. Maslin, Janet (January 19, 2011). "Amy Chua's 'Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother' – Review". The New York Times.
  12. 1 2 Kira Cochrane (7 February 2014). "The truth about the Tiger Mother's family". The Guardian. Retrieved 14 July 2014.
  13. "Another, Younger Side of 'Tiger Mother' Amy Chua". El Cerrito, CA Patch. 2011-02-07. Retrieved 2020-08-25.
  14. "Amy Chua". staff.washington.edu. Retrieved 2020-08-25.
  15. "Amy Chua". UW Faculty Web Server. University of Washington. Retrieved 26 July 2017.
  16. "H4A 2014 Summit:What Really Defines and Drives Success? with Amy Chua, Vivian Louie and Jeff Yang". YouTube. 2014-11-03. Archived from the original on 2021-12-19. Retrieved 19 November 2014.
  17. 1 2 "Yale Law School | Faculty | Curriculum Vitae". Archived from the original on December 11, 2007.
  18. Political Tribes by Amy Chua.{{cite book}}: |website= ignored (help)
  19. "Home entertainment". The Economist. December 4, 2003.
  20. "Top political reads of the year". The Guardian. London. December 24, 2003.
  21. Hodson, Heather (January 15, 2011). "Amy Chua: 'I'm going to take all your stuffed animals and burn them!'". The Guardian. London.
  22. Carey, Tanith (2016-01-17). "Whatever happened to the original tiger mum's children?". The Telegraph. Retrieved 22 February 2016.
  23. Zeiss Stange, Mary (9 Jan 2013). The Multimedia Encyclopedia of Women in Today's World. SAGE Publications. p. 183. ISBN   978-1452270685.
  24. Chua, Amy. "The Book". AmyChua.com. Archived from the original on 2011-04-24. Retrieved 15 May 2015.
  25. Rauhala, Emily (14 August 2014). "'Tiger Mother': Are Chinese Moms Really So Different?". Time. Retrieved 8 March 2014.
  26. Kitchener, Caroline (June 7, 2016). "How the 'Tiger Mom' Convinced the Author of Hillbilly Elegy to Write His Story". The Atlantic.
  27. Cochrane, Kira (7 February 2014). "The truth about the Tiger Mother's family". The Guardian.
  28. Chua, Amy; Rubenfeld, Jed (4 February 2014). The Triple Package: How Three Unlikely Traits Explain the Rise and Fall of Cultural Groups in America. Penguin Press. ISBN   978-1594205460.
  29. Kellaway, Lucy (9 February 2014). "Lessons in success from Eton and the Tiger Mother". Financial Times. Retrieved 4 October 2014 via ft.com.
  30. Brockes, Emily (2014-02-05). "The Triple Package: What Really Determines Success – review". The Guardian. Retrieved 4 October 2014.
  31. Crace, John (February 16, 2014). "The Triple Package by Amy Chua and Jed Rubenfeld – digested read". The Guardian.
  32. Hafiz, Yasmine (2014-01-06). "Amy Chua In 'The Triple Package' Claims Jews and Mormons Produce More Successful People". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 2020-03-13.
  33. Flood, Alison (8 January 2014). "'Tiger mother' returns with provocative theory of 'cultural group' success". The Guardian.
  34. Hart, Joshua; Chabris, Christopher F. (2016). "Does a 'Triple Package' of traits predict success?". Personality and Individual Differences. 94: 216–222. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2015.12.041.
  35. Frum, David (2018-03-01). "The Battle Over What It Means to Be American". The New York Times . Retrieved 2020-03-13.
  36. Rauch, Jonathan (2018-02-16). "Have our tribes become more important than our country?". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2018-03-30.
  37. Klein, Ezra (2018-02-26). "Podcast of February 26, 2018". The Ezra Klein Show.
  38. Anthony, Andrew (2018-02-25). "Political Tribes review – an unreliable guide to the American Dream". The Guardian. Retrieved 2018-03-04.
  39. Tett, Gillian (2018-02-21). "Us and them: how America divided into tribes". Financial Times. Retrieved 2018-03-04 via ft.com.
  40. 1 2 3 Lyall, Sarah; Saul, Stephanie (7 June 2021). "Gripped by 'Dinner Party-gate,' Yale Law Confronts a Venomous Divide". The New York Times. Retrieved 5 December 2022.
  41. Korn, Melissa (September 22, 2018). "Yale Law Professor Amy Chua Rejects Charge She Coached Female Students on How to Dress for Kavanaugh". WSJ. Retrieved 5 December 2022.
  42. Edelman, Adam; Hunt, Kasie (September 20, 2018). "Yale Law dean: Reports that professor groomed female clerks for Kavanaugh 'of enormous concern'". NBC News . Retrieved September 22, 2018.
  43. "A Yale Law Prof Was Disciplined for Holding Dinner Parties. There's More to the Story".
  44. Marantz, Andrew, "Ink: The Tiger Cub Speaks," The New Yorker, Feb. 10, 2014, p.20, 22.

Further reading