Chinese Immigrant Way of Education

Most of us are not “tiger mothers”

12-year-old Tiantian wakes up at 6:30 am every Saturday. Following a quick morning routine, she walks to the bus stop to catch the 7:35 bus that drives her to her first weekend extracurricular class — oil painting from 9:00 to 10:00. After that, she moves on to another classroom in the same building to take her second class of the day — Chinese language. While waiting for the class to start, she enjoys a healthy snack prepared by her mother, washing it down by a small box of milk. When the Chinese class is finished at 12:30 pm, it’s time for her to be picked up by one of her parents. In the afternoon, she also has a compacted schedule — a private piano coaching session from 2 to 3, then 1.5 to 2 hours’ piano practice before supper. On Sunday, she goes to the same singing class and swimming class with her 9-year-old sister. The rest of the weekend — if she still has enough energy — she has the right to use a little tablet or watch some TV. This is the unalterable rhythm of Tiantian’s weekend life, only disrupted occasionally by statutory holidays, and the only changing part otherwise is which classes and activities she attends.

Tiantian is not alone in this. She is but one of the numerous young kids of overseas Chinese who put their hearts and souls into their kids’ education. Immigrants from China are…