> Maybe the people you surround yourself with treat their children like that, but I don't think they, and in turn, your observation can be generalized to all of Chinese.
I think the experience described is pretty typical for the middle class. The claim that all Chinese lack creativity etc is clearly wrong, but I do think this upbringing is a big downward force on such traits. Many will surpass those challenges and get past their childhood experiences eventually, but some don't. My wife for example had a pretty typical upbringing, studying 24/7 basically. Imagine no weekends off since middle-school, not allowed to read books (except for course literature), studying until 11pm every day since high-school etc. Now, she's a high achiever, but needs the structure, without which she doesn't know what to do with herself. It's been a slow process undoing that damage, including a lot of therapy. Being very involved in the Chinese community, this is much more common than in Europe (don't know about US).
I think the experience described is pretty typical for the middle class. The claim that all Chinese lack creativity etc is clearly wrong, but I do think this upbringing is a big downward force on such traits. Many will surpass those challenges and get past their childhood experiences eventually, but some don't. My wife for example had a pretty typical upbringing, studying 24/7 basically. Imagine no weekends off since middle-school, not allowed to read books (except for course literature), studying until 11pm every day since high-school etc. Now, she's a high achiever, but needs the structure, without which she doesn't know what to do with herself. It's been a slow process undoing that damage, including a lot of therapy. Being very involved in the Chinese community, this is much more common than in Europe (don't know about US).