Tiger mothers in Singapore
新加坡虎妈
Losing her stripes?
虎妈当道
The prime minister goes into battle against pushy parents
总理对战虎爸虎妈
ONCE upon a time most of the tiny island-state of Singapore was a jungle. That is nearly all gone now, but the country is still heavily populated by tigers. These strict, unyielding felines, celebrated by Amy Chua in her book on the superiority of Chinese parenting, “The Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother”, load their cubs down with extra homework and tuition to make them excel at school. Western parents are usually horrified at the pressure the tiger mums exert on their children to get better grades or become concert violinists, preferably before puberty. But in Singapore this style of parenting, especially among the ethnic Chinese majority, is rarely questioned.
很久之前，小小岛国新加坡大部分都被丛林覆盖着，现在丛林几乎全部消失了，但居住在这里的“老虎”却依然不少。为了让孩子在学校表现更加优秀，虎妈布置的额外的家庭作业和课外辅导令孩子不堪重负。但在介绍中式育儿优势的《虎妈战歌》一书中，作者蔡美儿却对这些不会怒吼但异常严格的虎妈们大为称赞。为使孩子拿到更高分或将来成为一名优秀的小提琴演奏家，虎妈们还未等孩子长到的青春期便给孩子施加巨大的压力，西方家长普遍对此感到不寒而栗。可是在新加坡，尤其是在占人口大多数的华裔家长中，这种育儿方式几乎是毫无问题的。
Imagine, then, the surprise when the prime minister, Lee Hsien Loong, launched an attack on tiger mothers in a speech in late August to mark Singapore’s national day. Most of his remarks celebrated Singapore’s success, as usual. But then he berate[严责]d parents for coaching their three- or four-year-old children to give them that extra edge over the five-year-old competition. And he added: “Please let your children have their childhood…Instead of growing up balanced and happy, he grows up narrow and neurotic. No homework is not a bad thing. It’s good for young children to play, and to learn through play.”
于是，当新加坡总理李显龙在今年8月底的国庆节纪念演讲上谴责虎妈时，所引起的惊骇便是意料之中了。他的发言大部分都是在颂扬新加坡的成功之处，与平时并无二致，而后来却开始责备家长们不该要求3-4岁的儿童赛过5岁的孩子。他还补充道：“请让孩子们拥有一个真正的童年……他们应该平衡、快乐的成长，而不是像现在这样片面、敏感的成长。没有家庭作业不是坏事。这让孩子们更好的玩耍，并且在玩耍中学习。”
Heresy. Ms Chua, for one, physically extracted her daughters from school breaks because play, like gym classes, was a waste of time. Mr Lee has sparked a storm of controversy online, in the press and on his Facebook page.
异端。举其中一个列子，蔡女士野蛮的禁止她的女儿们享受学校的课间休息时间，因为她认为类似体育课的玩耍只会浪费时间。因此不论是在网上、纸质媒体中还是李显龙的脸书个人主页上，他都引起了激烈的争论。
It is too early to tell which way the debate that Mr Lee provoked will go. For many parents, to follow the prime minister’s indulgent instincts would be to jeopardise the little prodigy’s future. But the anxiety behind the comments is that hard-studying Singaporeans lack creativity and an ability to think laterally. This is now seen as a competitive disadvantage in what are often called “knowledge economies”, where innovation and inventiveness are at a premium. Are the tiger mothers, Mr Lee seems to be wondering, now putting Singapore’s future prosperity at risk?
李显龙总理所引起的这场辩论究竟走向何方现在还不好说。对很多家长来说，跟随总理的直觉放纵孩子，就意味着断送小神童们的前程。诸多评论背后也隐藏着焦虑，即新加坡人虽刻苦学习，但却缺乏创造能力和横向思考的能力。而在创新发明能力弥足珍贵、常被人冠之以“知识经济”的当今，这被视为一大劣势。李显龙总理似乎在思考，虎妈们是否正将新加坡的未来至于险境？