Tiger mothers dominate in HK

I refer to the letter by Anthony Chan on 'Tiger mother' Amy Chua ('Girls' stolen childhood', January 15).

Mr Chan pinpoints the difference between a person's character and skills. Amy Chua is obviously confused by the two, therefore blurring the line in her pursuit of trying to bring up, implicitly, superhumans.

Look around, tiger mothers do dominate in Hong Kong in frightening proportions. Is this a cultural thing? I believe it is.

Do we want children in our society to be super achievers only in academic subjects and music (sorry, violin or piano only according to Ms Chua's recipe), and nothing else?

So many supreme yet essential human qualities are not being mentioned in the Chua concoction, ingredients that will make citizens stand tall in the global community, a culture with colourful and refined characteristics, with people who care and love.

Sorry, I would rather have my children turn out to be all-round individuals than some robots who excel in school subjects, play solo violin and make seven-digit incomes but have essentially nothing to do with neighbours or the rest of world because they simply don't care.

Global/regional leaders are in short supply; folk with self-importance and narrow motives are plentiful in our society.