The Daily Show’s Olivia Munn Investigates Tiger Mom

Whether you love or hate author and Yale law professor Amy Chua, better known as ‘Tiger Mom,” she’s definitely become a cultural icon, and has recently even made it on The 2011 TIME 100! (Pretty crazy huh?)

The other night, The Daily Show’s Olivia Munn does quite an entertaining “investigative” piece on being raised by a “Tiger Mom” by interviewing her actual mom and contrasting child rearing philosophy versus traditional “Western” child raising methods with author Christine Carter of Raising Happiness and Ellen Dosick Kaufman of Empowering Your Indigo Children.

Munn argues that you can’t go against Tiger parenting that has been time tested over 6,000 years and with success statistics like these:

Asian American’s Employment by Sector

• 32% White Collar Professionals
• 26% Engineers
• 42% Make Pie Charts for Whites

That last statistic made me laugh and cry at the same time because it hit close to home.

Olivia and her mom have a good dynamic and one wonders if their conversation is truly sincere, part setup in the give-and-take, or everything is done tongue-in-cheek–especially when Olivia frequently alludes to her mom’s past harsh parenting practices, including her beatings.

I wonder what Munn’s mom though about her daughter’s career choice. Munn turned out to be a television personality, actress and model. Would that be a Tiger Mom approved career?Her mom’s accent actually reminds me of my mother’s accent–not that they are alike–but my mom has lived in the United States for over 40 years and makes me imagine that losing a foreign accent in a non-native tongue can be a challenge!

I actually recently finished reading Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother and I’ve been working on my review, which should be coming out sometime soon.