When I speak to her a decade later, Chua — a US-born law professor at Yale — is even more circumspect. And, in a parallel moment of self-awareness, China itself may be reaching a similar conclusion on the wisdom of allowing educational arms races to get out of control.
Earlier this month, Reuters reported Chinese government discussions on curtailing the country’s $120bn private tutoring industry, partly to ease pressure on children, but also to help revive slackening birth rates by reducing the financial burden of after-school classes. Analysts rushed to play down the risks of forced weekend closures and fee-caps, though shares in listed tutoring companies like New Oriental and TAL tumbled. The initiative sounds sensible, but can anyone, even the Communist party, resist the massed instincts of Tiger parents?