Check the Label

Scan the book reviews and you'd think The Triple Package: How Three Unlikely Traits Explain the Rise and Fall of Cultural Groups in America was the latest manifesto from the Klu Klux Klan.

A follow-up to her best-selling 2011 memoir Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, Amy Chua's new book is a sociological study - complete with plenty of statistics, academic references and endnotes - that tries to pinpoint why certain cultural and ethnic groups have had more economic and social success in America than others. Chinese Americans do well, it says, while white Anglo-Saxon Protestants and most African American groups do not.

Chua and her coauthor, husband and fellow Yale Law School professor Jed Rubenfeld, will discuss the book on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. at the Free Library.

Pundits have had a field day since the book's publication earlier this month.

"[A] despicable new theory about racial superiority," read a headline on Salon.com. London's the Independent charged Chua with "contempt for equality and personal autonomy," while Business Week took a personal swipe, titling its review, "Tiger Mom's Superiority Complex."

The Triple Package asserts that eight ethnic or religious groups in America outpace all others - the Chinese, Jews, Lebanese, Indians, Iranians, Nigerians, Cuban exiles and Mormons. Chua and Rubenfeld both belong: She's Chinese-American, he's Jewish.

While Chua and Rubenfeld have a forceful, fluid, and seductive writing style, they sometimes come across as self-satisfied and smug - perhaps one of the reasons critics seem to dislike them with such fervor.

In The Triple Package, the duo argue that three factors give families from these eight groups an edge. They raise their children to have an ingrained sense of cultural superiority. They are driven by a nagging sense of insecurity because of their status as immigrants and minorities. And they teach their young to cultivate impulse control and reject instant gratification.

Unbowed but a little rueful, Chua, 51, and Rubenfeld, 54, said in a phone interview Tuesday that their message has become lost in the hoopla. It's become almost impossible, they said, to have an open discussion about ethnicity and achievement without being accused of racism.

"It really feels that way to us," Rubenfeld said.

"People really have misunderstood the book," Chua chimed in. "I think it's worthwhile to ask why Asian American kids' SAT scores are 140 points higher than anyone else's."

The book does not suggest that only the eight groups it cites will be blessed with achievement. Chinese immigrants aren't the only Asian Americans with the traits necessary for high achievement, Chua said: "Of course, Japanese and Korean children have soared as academic superstars and dominate the music academies. We focus only on the [groups] that are the most strikingly disproportionate."

Chua and her husband said they are especially distressed that people assume their argument revolves around innate talent. The three character traits of success, they insist, come not from ethnic origin, but from immigrant status.

"We don't believe in the myth of the 'model minority,' " Chua said. "Asian kids aren't naturally good at math."

The authors said that the traits for success dissipate in three generations.

"The first-generation immigrants like my father, they bring this intensity and drive and work ethic," Chua said. "But they tend to be narrow. My parents only wanted me to be a doctor."

She added, "The second generation takes that same energy but refuses to be a doctor and instead excels at something else." Say, becoming a professor.

"This generates so much dynamism in America," Chua said. "I mean, this is a book about the beauty of America."

By the time the third generation arrives, the three traits of cultural superiority, anxiety, and impulse control have all but subsided, Rubenfeld said.

"Researchers say that third-generation Asian Americans taking the SATs tested no better than any other group," he said.

There are very real problems with The Triple Package.

For one, the authors suggest that success comes down to money and power.

"That's the way [immigrants] define it," Rubenfeld said. "It's part of being an immigrant that you worry you cannot survive. You worry that your children won't survive, so you push for monetary success as opposed to being creative."

Even more questionable is Chua and Rubenfeld's idea that the three traits they define - which they show to be the result of unique conditions - can somehow be administered to other children.

In their telling, even the most poverty-stricken, marginalized, and exploited family can raise a child with these qualities.

"We're saying any given family can instill in their children these characteristics," Chua said.

There's a Nobel prize out there for the chemist who can bottle the formula.

Amy Chua and Jed Rubenfeld: "The Triple Package"

7:30 p.m. Thursday at the Free Library, 19th and Vine Streets.

Tickets: $15; $7 for students. Information: 215-567-4341 or www.freelibrary.org/authorevents

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