China’s moon, the tiger moms & 揠苗助長 (Proverb)

In English we have a proverb, “The grass on the other side of the fence is greener.” As I was growing up, I kept hearing the proverb, 外國的月亮比較圓(wai4 guo2 de yue4 liang4 bi3 jiao4 yan2), literally meaning “The moon in a foreign country is rounder,” sometimes as a sarcasm to the prevailing notion that how a foreign country, mostly referring to the U. S., beats us in many ways.

However, as what we say, 風水輪流轉(feng shui3 lun3 liu2 zhuan3),  the table has been turned. Things seem to have changed. These days I notice that some Americans have started to turn their heads towards the East to watch the China’s moon.

For example, last December when a football game in Philadelphia was canceled due to a predicted snowy storm, the governor of Pennsylvania blasted his people for being “weak” by saying if the game were held in China, people wouldn’t back out. They would go to the game as planned, and would do some calculus on the way to it. To him, China’s moon seems to be rounder.

It is reported that President Obama mentioned in his State of the Union about China four times. He talked about China’s recent research and development in the fastest train, the fastest computer, . . . etc. As president of a country that has been a super power, Obama has expressed  a seemingly prevailing concern and anxiety for falling behind another potential super power.

More or less the sensation caused by the book Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother reflects such concern, I think. It’s like twenty years in Taiwan, when many people lashed out at Taiwan’s school education for putting too much pressure upon students by taking examples from America’s system: how school there ended somewhere around 3 p.m.; instead of endless tests and exams, how students enjoyed various extra-curricular activities. . . . 外國的月亮比較圓

I heard Amy Chua, the author of this “tiger mother” book, was put on the cover of the latest Time magazine. And there’s been a lot of talks on the trend of the Chinese parents sending their babies to those “early educational classes,” dance for one-year-old, economic for three, and potential class for three-month-old. . . .Wow, how can American parents sleep when they hear about this? (Same question for those who despise the “tiger mother.”)

I think people tend to go extremes or lose perspective with this “foreign moon complex.” You tend to take exceptional as general. Yes, traditionally Chinese parents might be “stricter” than most American parents. But I don’t know how many Chinese parent will call their children “garbage” when the kids fail to meet their expectations. (Forgive me for possibly using the wrong quotation because I haven’t read the book.) Chua’s daughters could have ended up a drug addict with a traumatic heart, which I think would be very likely if I were her daughter. If so, will she be where she is now?

And for those dance class for one-year-old and economic class for three, I have a very good idiom to teach you. (though the classes could be exaggerated)—揠苗助長(ya4 miao2 zhu4 zhang3)

Like the idiom 一暴十寒(yi2 pu4 shi2 han2) I told you before, it comes from a story told by 孟子(meng4 zi3) There was a farmer, who was haunted by the worry that his rice shoots wouldn’t grow up fast. One day he decided to “help” his shoots by pulling them up. The next day his son went to the farm, only to find that all the rice shoots had died out.

What am I wasting my time here for? Why don’t I take advantage of this trend and write a book with the title, Battle Hymn of the Snake Teacher? (As I told you before, I was born in the year of snake.) In it I’ll describe how I had started teaching at 7 a.m., which is true when I first graduated from college, how I had whipped my students for their poor grades, which was practiced by some teachers, but not me, and how I had practically lived with my students, reading their diary and talking to them every day, which was still, done by my coworkers. And I’ll be on the cover page of Time!

Hurray!! Guys and gals, see you on Time! (No, see me on Time!)

外國的月亮比較圓=外国的月亮比较圆 (Simplified)
外國: foreign
月亮: the moon
比較圓: rounder

風水輪流轉=风水轮流转

揠苗助長=揠苗助长

揠: pull up

苗: shoot

助: help as in 幫助

長: grow