Last January, an essay in the Wall Street Journal incited rage among parents across America. The essay, titled “Why Chinese Mothers are Superior,” was an excerpt from Yale Law professor Amy Chua’s forthcoming parenting tome The Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother. Chua argues that Chinese mothers raise more successful children than Western parents do because of cultural differences between Chinese and American parenting styles.Sino-American relations are extraordinarily complex and nuanced. In the classic juxtaposition of east meets west, intrapersonal relationships are often mired with myriad stereotypes, prejudices, and judgments. Among the most pervasive stereotypes within the American culture is the idea that Chinese-American students are innately more motivated, and thus more likely to succeed. Conversely, there is a widespread stereotype within Chinese culture that American students and parents are lazy and unmotivated. Driving these two major stereotypes are distinct cultural differences that have created a sharp divide between Chinese attitude towards education and American attitudes towards education.Some dismiss the stereotype that high-pressure environments create highly successful students. However, Chua argues that studies have shown “marked and quantifiable” differences between Western and Chinese parenting. “In one study of 50 Western American mothers and 48 Chinese immigrant mothers, almost 70% of the Western mothers said either that ‘stressing academic success is not good for children’ or that ‘parents need to foster the idea that learning is fun.’ By contrast, roughly 0% of the Chinese mothers felt the same way.”

One undercurrent of Chinese culture that contributes to this and similar attitudes is the Chinese familial structure. The traditional Chinese family, “jia,” has historically been highly patrilineal and patriarchal. While such family structures have changed significantly since the one-child policy went into effect in 1979, the importance of family relationships in China today are of no less importance. There are still many threads of traditional Chinese family culture intertwined in modern Chinese families. The extreme sentiment that children owe everything to their parents still pervades Chinese culture, and conjointly, so does the expectation that children will provide for their parents. It becomes understandable, then, that, as Chua writes, the Chinese mother will do anything for her children to be successful.

While Chua focused on Chinese-American parenting in her memoir, the emphasis on success at all costs exists in Mainland China as well. In the past several years, it has begun to have a significant impact on the landscape of higher education in the United States. Chinese history has long placed weight on high achievement. Since end of the Qing Dynasty, increase focus on educational achievement has been a driving force in Chinese society.

According to a series of studies conducted by Zinch China, a college preparation website, there is a pervasive cheating culture within Chinese society today, particularly in applications by Chinese students to American schools. Zinch China Chairman Tom Melcher notes that it is the Chinese parents who drive the application process, and that it is the parents’ own experiences in China that have driven so many to such a high level of application fraud. “They have seen many people who ‘succeeded’ by bending or breaking the rules, almost always with impunity.” Most of these applications are not malicious, Melcher says, just an accepted part of the Chinese culture.

And there has been a marked increase in the attendance of American universities by Chinese students. A recent New York Times article about the influx of Chinese students at American universities profiled the University of Delaware. Since 2007, the number of Chinese students at the University has increased from 8 to 517. And while many have acclimated to school culture, others struggle to immerse themselves in the school culture, in part because the educational structures and focus in America differ so drastically from those in China. The director of the English Language Institute for international students “remembers how one student memorized four Wikipedia entries so he could regurgitate whichever one seemed most appropriate on an in-class essay – an impressive, if misguided, feat.” Serious cultural differences – such as the high emphasis on individualism in American culture, something nowhere near as present in Chinese culture – have made it difficult for many of these students to acclimate. This clash of civilizations, however minor it may seem, could have broader implications for Sino-American relations down the line.

China has one of the largest economies in the world and is fast expanding; any country wishing to remain on top would be foolish to discount China. Yet there are serious, marked cultural differences, not just on a national level, but on an interpersonal level as well. The U.S. State Department has recognized this.  It recently launched the “10,000 Strong Initiative,” which aims to promote cross-cultural study abroad and travel programs for both U.S. high school and college students, as well as Chinese high school and college students. As the wealth gap in China narrows and “millions more Chinese are…achieving a recognizably middle-class lifestyle,” China will increasingly become a greater competition for the United States. Yet despite increasing interconnectedness, prejudices among the two cultures still exist, specifically between educational systems and attitudes. Americans may not be able to keep pace with a seemingly ever-expanding China without a deeper understanding of the Chinese educational culture and the underlying values that influence it.