New 'tiger mum' sparks debate
China mum makes son study for 16 hours daily
The original "tiger mum" was Yale law professor Amy Chua, who became a polarising figure in 2011 as a mother who demanded perfection from her two daughters.
Now a similar "tiger mum" is making the news in China, Hong Kong daily the South China Morning Post reported.
She has been making her nine-year-old son study 16 hours every day. This includes after-school lessons and weekend classes in piano, calligraphy, swimming and mathematics, mainland media reported.
The boy, from Chongqing, has a detailed schedule to follow. Copies of the schedule were shared online and sparked a huge debate, Chongqing Times reported.
He wakes up at 5am and starts his extra studies by 6am. He is allowed to stop studying at 10pm, before going to bed at 11pm.
During weekdays, the mother, a graduate of China's prestigious Peking University - who said she had been brought up the same way by her father - makes her son take extra English classes in addition to having to do his homework after school.
Her son's weekends are spent taking extra classes in subjects including piano practice, calligraphy, swimming and exercises for the International Mathematical Olympiad.
'GOOD FOR THE CHILD'
The mother, identified in the report only by her surname, Liu, told the newspaper that she had not expected the schedule of her son's extra curriculum studies to have sparked such a huge debate.
Learning the piano would boost his artistic talent, "which would help him to find a girlfriend", she said, while doing exercises in mathematics problems would "hone his logistic-thinking ability".
She said she had been reflecting whether she was too strict with her son, but had concluded that "it was not problematic as long as it's good for the child".
She also recommended that other parents adopt the methods she was using to educate her son.
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