Currently

Books I'm Reading:

None. I've finished all my books.
I am, however, planning on reading:

The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler


This week: 457
Last week: 138
Semester: 1535


Sentences(passages) of the week: (All from "Battle Hymn")

1. "Of course, I also wanted Sophia to benefit from the best aspects of American society. I did not want her to end up like one of those weird Asian automatons who feel so much pressure from their parents that they kill themselves after coming in second on the national civil service exam. I wanted her to be well rounded and to have hobbies and activities. Not just any activity, like "crafts" which can lead nowhere - or even worse, playing the drums, which leads to drugs - but rather a hobby that was meaningful and highly difficult with the potential for depth and virtuosity. And that's where the piano came in."

2. "One jarring thing that many Chinese people do is openly compare their children. I never thought this was so bad when I was growing up, because I always came off well in the comparison. My Dragon Lady grandmother - the rich one, on my father's side - egregiously favored me over all my sisters. 'Look how flat that one's nose is,' she would cackle at family gatherings, pointing at one of my siblings. 'Not like Amy, who has a fine, high-bridged nose. Amy looks like a Chua. That one takes after her mother's side of the family. and looks like a monkey.'"

3. "The Chinese parenting approach is weakest when it comes to failure; it just doesn't tolerate that possibility."


First of all, everyone knows that learning the drums leads to drug use. There have been 5 cases of people I knew who started learning drums, only to be tempted by drugs. Drums and drugs: the two are interchangeable. Of course, I exaggerate greatly. However, that is sort of the mindset that Asian parents have. If you do something that your parents disapprove of, it will automatically lead to the worst possible result without fail. Sometimes, I really hate that mindset.

2nd quote. Again, something I dislike from the Asian parenting method. While Amy Chua explains why parents do it in her novel (to express confidence in the child on the losing end that they, too, can be like the child on the winning end), it's still incredibly tedious to hear parents say, "Oh, look at so-and-so, he/she can do such-and-such. How are you so worthless as to not be able to do such-and-such?"

3rd quote. Failure includes yelling, constant nagging, and threats, so yeah, I'd say failure is intolerable.