Having lived in many cultures and noticed the various approaches even within cultures on parenting, and being a parent myself in a culture in which I did not grow up, I find the subject fascinating. I do think, however, it is important not to imagine that Chua speaks for any one culture, especially one as large and as diverse as the Chinese. In my reading of the book, it was very much a story of her. She happens to be of Chinese descent, via the Phillipines and Indiana, but her version of what constitutes parenting is really quite narrowly her own.

But you have brought up a good point. Reading about parenting from different cultures would be eye-opening. For example, I would very much like to read about it in modern day China; in rural places as well as big cities, in areas that are primarily inhabited by Han descendants and those from other ethnic groups, by parents who have lived or studied in other countries and those who have not left.

And I would read your musings on what you’ve observed in Egyptian families, scientific or not.

I imagine it’s more of a trend of the moment than anything else, but in the science fiction field, far-future stuff seems to be on the decline. More readers are imagining new worlds with “realistic” technologies set in the next few centuries. Perhaps it’s just our growing scientific knowledge and disillusion with technology that is in effect magic, but those novels had a certain type of spirit that isn’t captured as much anymore.