SupChina Women’s Conference－interview with Amy Chua Amy Chua’s renowned success of her book ‘The Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother’ has gained recognition for both her style of writing, as well as the extreme Asian parenting style that authors of her generation has never really shed light upon. Chua herself is born as a second generation Asian American, and her family shaped her childhood in stern rules, a few examples were: no high heels, no parties (including birthdays), no make up. Her parents raised her with a black-and-white set of rules- there were no room for negotiation, no grey zones to sneak about. Chua inherited this parenting style and in our interview, she went forth on the important life lessons she took from her family.
Although, it may seem to be a stifling childhood, Chua said: the most important thing that I took from my father, is not giving up. To me, it’s the resilience. As a Yale professor, it took her more than 100 rejections to get to where she is. Chua recalled: I was already in my thirties, and I wanted to be a law professor. I applied to a hundred places, and I got exactly a hundred rejections. I was devastated. I spoke to my dad with frustration, my dad said: ‘what? You only got a hundred rejections and already want to give up?’ Like he thought was a low number, which is why I always tell my students at Yale, no matter how many rejections you got, all you need is one offer.
During the interview, one of my question was: what is the most important character trait that you have instilled in your children? Chua responded: I hope, that it’s bravery, which comes from resilience. There were many times in the past eight years that I just feel like crawling through a hole by seeing criticisms about me and feeling powerless about it. Being able to laugh at yourself and get over that is actually better for long-term strength.
In SupChina women’s conference, there were a total of 23 guest speakers whom were all female pioneers in their field. The energy in the room was very empowering, and throughout the event, there were different themes that sparks the conference conversation. A list of the themes: 1) Technology / innovation, 2) Finance / business, 3) Gender Diversity Profitable evidence from a global study, 4) Consumer / retail / auto, 5) U.S. China trade issues.
If you want to know more about SupChina and this event, click on this link to check their website. https://supchina.com/2019/04/01/3rd-annual-supchina-womens-conference/
