Students also need to learn social skills

In spite of the controversy she created in the US, the majority of Chinese commentators dismiss or disapprove of the methods of "Tiger mom", Yale University professor Amy Chua who wrote Battle Hymns of the Tiger Mom. After all, Chinese kids are already heavily burdened, how much more can tiger moms or dads really push?

More importantly, most Chinese people know that there is something wrong with the Chinese method of education, which places greater emphasis on "main subjects" such as Chinese, Math and English, while marginalizing subjects not tested in the College Entrance Exam.

So as families become more affluent, parents search for suzhi jiaoyu, a well-rounded education, for their kids and take them to extracurricular lessons, with the reasoning that such skills as playing the piano will make their kids better than their neighbor's kids who may only be good at taking tests.