<p>I wonder if her mom dictated which colleges she was allowed to apply to, and how she filled out her applications.</p>
<p>k and s-</p>
<p>Actually, these days, not a lot of Jewish kids are playing violin and piano, it amazed me how relatively few kids of Jewish families I see in high level music. Doesn’t mean there aren’t any, but it is nowhere near the large numbers from Asian backgrounds.</p>
<p>The link in question about the competition and Sophia Chua was last year, it wasn’t the 2007 one that got her to Carnegie Hall, I have yet to find anything on the net about that one, other then “Sophia made her Carnegie Hall debut at 14 after winning a competition”. I suspect it was not a major competition, in that when someone wins one of those, the various music magazines have them on their website. </p>
<p>Epiphany, I used to assume the same thing, but there is a difference between playing at an event sponsored by Carnegie Hall (in the description, it will say Carnegie Hall presents) and something done by an outside group, the outside group is as I said someone booking the space and having the money (obviously, not all outside groups are equal; Young Artists management has performances there, and these are all top notch young soloists, while the New York Music Competition is an event sponsored by Korean cultural groups and is basically a competition for local Korean kids and is not considered a top level competition).Not all performing spaces rent themselves out, and if they do all the events themselves, they very well could have high standards. Avery Fisher Hall can be rented out, but I don’t think they ever rent it out to outside music groups, it usually is rented out for graduations and such, anything at Avery Fisher is under their auspices and it is usually professional, high level orchestras and such. </p>
<p>As someone said, how someone got to Carnegie hall matters…and ‘practice, practice, practice’ doesn’t always apply…:)</p>
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<p>Clearly not. She could not play solo anywhere with a second place winning. Regarding Debut at Carnegie Hall; I thought when we say “Carnegie Hall Debut”, it meant more than just palying in the physical space unless we are joking among family. members. I didn’t read the book but if Amy Chua really called it Carnegie Hall debut, one has to wonder what she meant by it. </p>
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<p>I don’t know what it’s like in New York. In our area, there are so many excellent Korean musicians that sometimes it’s harder to win in a Korean competition. Some years ago, in the most prestigeous competion here, three top winners in four different categories were Koreans.</p>
<p>I think it’s wonderful that she made her Carnegie debut. For those parents who have made multiple posts questioning her ability or the way she got there, I say get over it. How would you feel if your child has done well in music and people anonymously panned her multiple times online. Why so much vitriol and negativity towards Sophia ? Enough!!</p>
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<p>That is a problem that was ENTIRELY started by the mother. </p>
<p>Seeking publicity and monetary rewards, this mother decided it was acceptable to place her child on a tee. and let the world take a swing at her! Just as the misguided parents who accept to have the press covering their children, authors give up the right to complain about the public at large when it expresses scorn, doubts, or simpler criticism. </p>
<p>Fwiw, considering her prior decisions, I think that Amy Chua could not care less about what people think about her and her children, as that would require a modicum of human sensitivity.</p>
<p>Just because someone puts her child on a tee, it doesn´t mean we need to take a swing at it, especially when there is a child involved.</p>
<p>I beg to differ. Amy Chua made a decision that most parents would never make. She is the one who exposed the children for utterly selfish motives.</p>
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<p>I was about to post virtually an identical comment early this morning. I agree. I think this minimizing of achievement is in bad taste, i.m.h.o. As a Mom whose daughters, plural, were engaged in performing arts by their own volition (they pushed me, I didn’t push them), and who balanced those considerable practices, studio rehearsals, performance competition demands equal to the schedule of an athlete, while earning top grades at a demanding school, I consider any child’s similar achievement worthy of praise, not belittling.</p>
<p>One doesn’t need to be a solo prodigy to be highly accomplished in the arts. In fact, I will bet that most CC’ers are not even aware of how many big screen actors have parallel careers as classical or jazz musicians (instrumental or vocal). Who cares whether they were or were not billed under “Carnegie Hall Presents…” Most of the time they are not even seeking publicity for their secondary or equal talents, but are doing it for the love of it, as my own D’s did. I wouldn’t know if Sophia Chua also did (or didn’t) for personal enjoyment, but whether she was self-motivated or pressured, merely having succeeded at any level of accomplishment (competitions often require many levels – I would know) is praiseworthy – in itself, and for college admissions.</p>
<p>DISCLOSURE: As I mentioned much earlier, I do not care for Amy Chua, at least as she presented herself on Charlie Rose. This musical discussion is separate, as far as I’m concerned. Not saying that I approve of her (apparent) parenting style.</p>
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<p>So you have to show how mean and utterly petty you are.</p>
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<p>Are you addressing this to me? Care to rephrase that point?</p>
<p>Yes and including many others and no.</p>
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<p>Well, in that case, could you please point to a single example of my being “mean and utterly petty” and, for that matter, even discussing the children in a negative way. </p>
<p>By the way, out of curiosity, is your spirited and aggressive defense of Chua grounded in sharing the same heritage?</p>
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<p>The point you seem to be missing is that the person who is being denigrated here is her daughter, who never made the decision to subject herself to public scrutiny.</p>
<p>I am not missing that point at all. The point is that, just as everything else, the mother made that decision for the child. She robbed them of a normal childhood and then placed them in a glass house.</p>
<p>I feel sorry for the daughters.</p>
<p>xiggi, not you so much , you arrived late at the scene so to speak on this part regarding Sophia.</p>
<p>I never defended Chua’s methods of parenting. Show me an example. I am defending criticisms on her parenting based on racial stereotyping. If she was anything but Asian, I doubt it would merit in CC so many negative posts. Read Jewish and black parents threads and you could see the differences.</p>
<p>By the way, do your many spirited posts seemingly negative in Asian related threads including Jian Li years ago grounded in your anti-Asian sentiments?</p>
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<p>Not so much? Does that mean you could not find a single post? Thought so! </p>
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<p>Again, I thought so. You are deciding to define yourself on the basis of race. Not everyone else does. </p>
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<p>Nice try, but that will not work! Does my criticism of Amy Chua’s parental decision boil down to criticizing Asians? Would I say anything different if Chua were South African, Russian, or Iraqi? Would I have said anything dfferent about misguided entitlement had Jian Li be James Worthington III?</p>
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<p>LOL! Amy Chua promoted herself / her book as an example of Chinese parenting! It’s not as though she promoted a parenting method and then we all said, “Oh, see, she’s Chinese.”</p>
<p>Anyway, given the continued emergence of new threads from hard-working Asian kids who are complaining that their parents think they are utter failures if they didn’t get into a handful of top schools, I’m really not too worried about <em>us</em> doing the stereotyping. There’s more than enough evidence that when there is smoke, there is fire on this one.</p>
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<p>I think it’s wonderful that the kid is an accomplished player. There are so few classical musicians that we could use every one of them. I do however object to the term Carnegie Hall Debut. Doesn’t one use Carnegie Hall Debut as in …Sarah Chang debuted at Carnegie Hall playing xxx with NY phil when she was 8 years old? My little cousin played at Carnegie Hall but we don’t call it Carnegie Hall Debut except when we are kidding the kid. Did Amy Chua really apply the Debut term to her child’s appearance there without qualifying it? If she really said that and people here are clarifying what that “debut” means, it is not taking the daughter down.</p>
<p>After reading this thread from the beginning, actually reading (!) Chua’s book, AND watching the Charlie Rose interview, I am firmly in cbreeze’s camp. The bitterness in this thread toward the Chua girls and the denigration of their accomplishments is astonishing and more what I would expect from the high school mean girls than from putative adults.</p>
<p>Is it really that much of an affront to the sensibilities of so many CC parents that these kids may turn out to be healthy, well adjusted (as well as very accomplished) adults? There are many roads to Rome and just because most of us would have never used Chua’s methods in rearing our own children doesn’t make them entirely invalid. Clearly, she had very gifted children to work with and made her choices with a pretty good eye toward their strengths. As far as I can tell, she got great results. Both girls seem to be happy, confident young women.</p>
<p>I get the distinct impression that many of the posters on this thread are really hoping that these kids crash and burn in order to vindicate their vitriol towards their mother. What I can’t understand is why you all care so darn much. Raise your own kids your own way; no one is going to come to your house and insist that you use Chua’s methods. If you are happy with your own kids’ level of accomplishment, isn’t that enough?</p>