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Reframing the cultural narrative of Asian American motherhood—through these mothers' own voices and experiences.
The high stakes of motherhood today go beyond who qualifies as a good or bad mother, to who belongs and who is other. For Asian American mothers, these judgments have often been shaped by the enduring stereotype of the strict, academically driven "tiger mother."
In Not Tiger Moms, Miliann Kang explores the racist, xenophobic roots of this trope and how it undermines Asian American mothers, silencing their voices and inhibiting their connections to their children, to each other, and to other mothers, including their own. Through deeply personal and candid interviews, Asian American mothers who were born or grew up predominantly in the United States share stories that upend perceptions of them as both model minority reproducers and foreign threats. Instead, they chart new pathways to and through motherhood, imagining more expansive possibilities not only for Asian American mothers, but for all mothers.
Miliann Kang is Professor of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and author of The Managed Hand: Race, Gender, and the Body in Beauty Service Work.
"Miliann Kang's 'matritropes' bring the clarity of understanding racially diverse mothering to light. In her detailed description of the lives of Asian American mothers struggling within and outside the 'tiger mom' narrative, Kang deftly addresses not only the othering that happens to racial 'others' as mothers but also the othering that happens to all mothers as issues of production, reproduction, and citizenship get recirculated and reinterpreted in the United States and abroad. Recognizing the racial hierarchy that Asian American moms and their children benefit from and reproduce, Kang challenges us all to 'imagine motherwise,' as she says, so that those who choose to mother are supported and valued in their own right."—Riché J. Daniel Barnes, author of Raising the Race: Black Career Women Redefine Marriage, Motherhood and Community
"Kang takes on the 'Asian American mother' as a social category through analysis that unites both the construction of 'othering' and the experiences of second-generation Asian American mothers who must negotiate this classification. This book refuses to recoil from illustrating the fraught ambitions, contradictions, and even cruelties that motherhood enacts, dispelling impossible ideals in its willingness to tell hard (yet necessary) stories."—Lisa Sun-Hee Park, coauthor of The Third Net: The Hidden System of Migrant Health Care
"When racial stereotypes overlay gender stereotypes, Asian American mothers get caught in a pinch. Kang brilliantly deconstructs the cultural contradictions of competing demands for excellence in every domain."—Nancy Folbre, author of Making Care Work: Why Our Economy Should Put People First
"Not Tiger Moms shows how understanding motherhood advances our understanding of Asian America. Kang is a caring carrier of these women's stories, conveyed through excellent scholarship and feminist methodology. They are written for, not simply written about. I don't know any other text that does this for Asian American women."—Pawan Dhingra, author of Hyper Education: Why Good Schools, Good Grades, and Good Behavior Are Not Enough
"In this insightful, important, and beautifully written book, Kang challenges 'tiger mother' tropes by highlighting differences and commonalities among Asian American mothers. A triumph!"—Joya Misra, author of Walking Mannequins: How Race and Gender Inequalities Shape Retail Clothing Work