Notes On China

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Yao Jiaxin in courtroom

Yao Jiaxin in courtroom

Yale law professor Amy Chua succeeded spectacularly in making America hear her Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother. Thanks to Chua and the online chatter that exploded after the publication of her memoir of raising her two daughters Chinese-style in Connecticut, there can be few parents in the US today who do not have a position on what the New York Times dubbed “extreme parenting”.

Chua’s book has also been a bestseller in China, under the intriguing titleBeing a Mother in America – a Yale Law Professor’s Child-raising experience. But it’s a murder case in Xi’an, the ancient city best known for its terracotta army, that has triggered a bitter re-examination of the legitimacy of tiger mom parenting among the Chinese.

It would not be an exaggeration to say that 21 year old piano student Yao Jiaxin topped China’s most hated list in 2011. On October 20 of last year, Yao ran into a young woman while driving home. That was an accident. It’s what happened next that is shocking. When he got off his car, he found out that the injured victim was noting down the car’s license plate number. It was then “within three seconds” that he made a decision that altered his life for ever. Fearful of future blackmailing, Yao took out a dagger and stabbed the woman to death – six times - before fleeing the scene. Three days later, escorted by his parents, Yao turned himself in and confessed to his crime. The open trial that started in March this year made him a celebrity overnight.

First people were puzzled. No one could imagine how the same fingers that played Beethoven and Mozart so gracefully could end a life so ruthlessly. Soon public outrage seized whole nation. People started to ask: why? And the voices arguing that what Yao did was testimony to the bankruptcy of harsh parenting became louder and louder.

[story continues on the LatitudeNews.com site]