Rethinking parenting of East Asian immigrant families in the United States with Asian feminist perspectives

In the Western perspective of parenting, East Asian parenting had been understood as either tiger mothering or traditional Confucian mothering. However, those parenting styles were considered a harsh authoritarian style. Based on Asian feminist perspectives, which seek to rethink ‘Asia’ and ‘Asian women’ in different ways, the author attempts to reconceptualize East Asian parenting as the signifier of diversity. East Asian parenting is the process of inviting East Asian immigrant children into the imaginary space of ‘Asia’. Moreover, East Asian women are the producers of their knowledge instead of reproducers of inherent knowledge, or tradition. With this new understanding of East Asian parenting, the author proposes to educators who work with East Asian immigrant families to make space for East Asian immigrant families in the school context, or even broader, in Developmentally Appropriate Practice (DAP).