WildChina Book Club: Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua
Over the past 20 years, we’ve loved connecting curious travelers to the people and stories that encapsulate the real China – the one where a village shaman blesses our travels through Yunnan and a local Beijing resident guides us through traditional hutong alleyways. While we can’t welcome you to China in person right now, we are finding ways to still deliver those authentic insights and narratives straight to your home. And one of those ways is with our new WildChina Book Club.
At the beginning of every month, from now until July, we’ll handpick a new book we’re reading (related to China, of course), and invite you to join us in reading it. Later in the month, WildChina founder Mei Zhang will host a live chat and Q&A session with the author.
Join us for a suspenseful novel, a captivating memoir, and more, over the next few months. But first, check out our May book below before RSVPing to the talk here.
Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother
“This is a story about a mother, two daughters, and two dogs. This was supposed to be a story of how Chinese parents are better at raising kids than Western ones. But instead, it’s about a bitter clash of cultures, a fleeting taste of glory, and how I was humbled by a thirteen-year-old.” — Amy Chua
If you’ve ever heard the term Tiger Mother or Tiger Mom, then get ready to read the memoir that inspired its popularity. Amy Chua’s brutally honest, charming, and yet rather provocative insight into raising two girls in a traditionally ‘Chinese’ way highlights the benefits, struggles, rewards, heartbreak, and love that come with parenting and contrasting cultures.
Join us this May to read her bestselling work before we sit down with the author herself. We’re also thrilled to announce that Wendy Perrin, travel industry veteran and Editor in Chief of wendyperrin.com, will be joining Mei and Amy to co-host the discussion.
You can purchase Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother here. Or, if you’ve already read it, you can purchase Amy’s latest book, Political Tribes: Group Instinct and the Fate of Nations, here.
SPEAKER:
Amy Chua
The daughter of Chinese immigrants from Fujian province, Amy Chua is the John M. Duff, Jr. Professor of Law at Yale Law School and a bestselling author. In 2011, Amy was named one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world, one of the Atlantic Monthly’s Brave Thinkers, and one of Foreign Policy’s Global Thinkers. She also received the Yale Law School’s “Best Teaching” award.
Amy Chua’s written works include World on Fire: How Exporting Free Market Democracy Breeds Ethnic Hatred and Global Instability (2002), which was selected by both The Economist and the U.K.’s Guardian as a Best Book of 2003 and Day of Empire: How Hyperpowers Rise to Global Dominance – and Why They Fall (2007). This month, we’ll be reading Amy Chua’s 2011 memoir Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, a provocative international bestseller that has been translated into 30 languages.
Find out more about Amy Chua’s life and work here.
Hosts
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Mei ZhangFounder and CEO of WildChinaMei Zhang is the founder and CEO of WildChina. Under her leadership, WildChina flourished from a small Hutong operation into an award-winning business. Mei’s own expertise has led her to win a number of personal awards, including Travel and Leisure’s A-List of Top Travel Advisors, Condé Nast Traveler’s Top Travel Specialist, and Wendy Perrin’s #WOW List of Travel Experts. Mei is an Aspen Institute China Fellow and currently serves as a member of Harvard Business School’s Alumni Board.
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Wendy Perryfounder of wendyperrin.comWendy is one of the most trusted voices in travel. Town&Country magazine calls her “The Travel Whisperer” who will take you “as close as you can get to vacation perfection.” Condé Nast Traveler praises “The Wizardry of Wendy” and her “encyclopedic knowledge of all things travel.” After 30 years as a travel advice columnist and consumer advocate, first at Condé Nast Traveler and then at TripAdvisor, Wendy has amassed comprehensive knowledge of the world’s best travel solutions and fixers. By popular demand from her longtime readership of sophisticated frequent travelers, she has created a unique system to ensure that these travelers benefit from those solutions and fixers in order to get the high caliber of trip that they are looking for. Here’s how you too can get the best trips possible.
Wendy has been a keynote speaker at conferences worldwide, on cruise ships, at Harvard University, and at the United Nations. Television appearances include The Today Show, Good Morning America, and many programs on CNN. She has won the Travel Journalist of the Year award, earned a Lowell Thomas award for investigative journalism, and been a finalist for a National Magazine Award—the magazine industry’s most prestigious editorial honor. She graduated cum laude from Harvard, where she majored in History and Literature.