This book is about the life of a 21-year-old Chinese-American man who writes about his trauma and childhood abuses. His mother is a "Tiger Mother" and she regularly tormented, physically and mentally. He feels that his future was robbed from him as a result of his mother's mistakes in parenting and admonishes her for it.
"Tiger parenting was supposed to make me a success," says the young author. "Instead, it destroyed my personal life and any chance for a meaningful career."
Tiger Mother: Son of a Bitch relates Lin's sorry tale, from being tortured to play the piano and violin, to being dragged on dates by his Tiger Mom so he could get a free meal. When Derrick gets a "D" on a college chemistry exam, he tries to commit suicide. Depressed and socially inept, he drops out of school when his Tiger Mom spends his college education funds on such things as breast implants. Even the U.S. military rejects him as unfit for service when he tries to enlist to free himself from his abusive Tiger Mother.
Many people are hailing Amy Chua's harsh parenting techniques, described in Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, as a cure for America's declining status in the world. Derrick Lin thinks you should see the other side of the story -- a side you won't soon forget -- where the same techniques cause irreparable psychological harm. Lin screams out for the thousands of Asian- Americans who have suffered the abuse of Tiger Mothers, and offers himself up as an example of what can happen when tiger parenting goes too far.