Oh, come on. Will this damn Tiger Mother thing every go away? Apparently not any time soon. You know a stereotype has hit the big time when that ridiculous ABC hidden camera segment What Would You Do? serves up a tasteless little stunt exploiting the hell out of it. Yup: 'Tiger Mom' Attacks Kid for A-Minus: Would You Get Involved? Take a look:
Basically, they've set up two actors playing mean Asian mom and meek A-minus student, having an Extreme Tiger Mother moment smack in the middle of a restaurant -- much to the discomfort of their fellow diners, who are not in on the ruse. The point of the segment -- and the whole show -- is to see how regular people react when put in a situation like this. It's pretty awful.
Sure, everything fake mom says is apparently stuff described right out of Amy Chua's Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother -- aka the Hardass Asian Mom Handbook -- but when you put them all together in one abusive, larger-than-life scream session in the middle of a restaurant, all you really get is a caricature.
Seriously -- do people in the restaurant not realize that they're being punked? Or maybe some of them are buying into the stereotype too. And come on, everybody knows that Tiger Moms do their soul-crushing berating in private. More here: Fake Tiger Mom Causes Real Screaming Match At Restaurant.
