Amy Chua

Dear readers,
I decided to write about Amy Chua because I feel that she is indeed a very interesting individual and I just saw her again in Time 100. For this blog post, I decided to use a different way of talking about her, through an open letter written from her younger daughter, Louisa.

Hope you enjoy.

Dear Mum,

After reading the excerpt from your book, I finally understood your good intentions in being so strict with Sister Sophia and me. I know that you did all that for our own good, and I do know that my exemplary results and my talent in playing the piano and violin are results of to the stress you have given to me, which motivated me to perform even better.

However, the pressure you have inflicted on me is too much for me to bear and I hope that through this letter, you can understand my emotions better. It is not that I am totally against your strictness, but that you could be more lenient in certain aspects, and not be so autocratic in your decisions.

Some of your rules and regulations which you have imposed on Sister Sophie and me are, in my opinion, rather unreasonable. For instance, the rule not being able to watch the television or to play computer games is intolerable. I feel that watching the television and playing some computer games can be a good way to release some stress from school work and by you too. This is extremely important as too much of it can cause emotional problems and would also affect my performance negatively. Therefore, I feel that there should be a good balance between rest and work, and not just all the latter.

Also, the requirements about getting no less than a grade A and being the top student in every subject are extremely unrealistic and stressful for me. Honestly speaking, although I have mostly been able to fulfill your requirements so far, I am really very pressurized. I would definitely try my best in every subject, but without these demanding goals, I would then, in my view, be able to really show my true potential as with too much stress, no one can excel.

There are also other rules that you have instilled in me which I do not too agree with, but I would just name two examples. However, I am not saying that we have to be totally lenient and let sister and me do whatever we want. We should still have rules and regulations but I feel that such rules can be as we are older and more mature. This would definitely help in my emotional growth, which is of paramount importance to a growing child like myself. I do hope you can really understand what I am going through and why I oppose so strongly to certain rules I have been following blindly for so many years. Therefore, this letter is crucial to the changes which I hope would be brought out in the near future as this would definitely make my life and your life better.

Yours sincerely,
Louisa