Chin Ka Lok and Angela Tong Are “Tiger Parents”
Their daughter Alyssa Chin (錢凱晴) is barely three months old, but new parents Chin Ka Lok (錢嘉樂) and Angela Tong (湯盈盈) are already searching for a top-rated private kindergarten school for their daughter. Are the Chins already becoming “Tiger parents”?
A few days ago, East Week caught the casual couple arriving at the entrance of the Victoria (Belcher) Kindergarten school, where they quietly queued up to fill in a sign-up sheet. Ka Lok and Angela left the school half an hour later.
The prestigious Victoria school is one of the world’s top bilingual private education facilities, comprising of nine nurseries and kindergartens, one primary sector, and one secondary school. Li Ka Shing’s (李嘉誠) granddaughter, Joseph Lau’s (劉鑾雄) daughter, and Gigi Lai’s (黎姿) twins are also students of Victoria.
Ka Lok is currently tied to filming Super Trio Maximus <超級無敵獎門人 終極篇>, the highly anticipated tenth series to the Super Trio variety game show. Angela, on the other hand, is busy doing mother duties at home. Her last television drama with TVB was Triumph in the Skies 2 <衝上雲霄II>, which will be on air this summer.
Although there is no word on when Angela will return to work, East Week reported that a comeback for Angela is more distant than soon.
Source: East Magazine #508 via kuangaitvb.com
This article is written by Addy for JayneStars.com.
addy, you come up with the worst titles for articles all the time.
Agree. That’s a bad title, not journalism attempt to be controversial kind of bad, just simply bad. They are not monster parents. Just typical Asian parents who want their kid to go to a reputable school.
My friend signed their kid up for a good and popular Christian school when their baby was 2 day old, that does not make them monster parents. Just tiger parents or as some Singaporean would say kiasu parents.
I agree.
Yes I absolutely agree, someone I know volunteered for one day a week for 6 years in a row at a reputable school in order to get her daughter in there. Well, she was granted a spot which mama very happy, can’t say the same for the little girl though. She found the school environment to be very competitive and stressful.
According to my knowledge, “monster parents” is a [relatively] new term to define parents who pay very close attention to their kids’ education experiences.
“monster” parents and “helicopter” parents are used interchangeably. They mean the same thing.
But the source of the article itself is from a tabloid magazine that actually described CKL and A to be monster parents: “二人已急不及待，趕往名校幼兒班報名霸位，名副其實的「怪獸家長」”. Like the terms “kong child” or “princess syndrome”, Hong Kong culture has adopted “monster parents” as a new pejorative expression to describe extreme parenting.
Of course, the title of this article is obviously sensationalized. Like Chin Ka Lok and Angela, many new parents in HK begin to look for kindergarten and primary schools for their children long before their kids even learn how to walk. So even referring to them as “tiger parents” is over blowing the issue.
Lol. When I first saw the headline, I was thinking
‘Oh no, what did they do?’
Well, glad its nothing monstrous except just doing their best for their kid. Thumbs up to the great parents. 🙂
Well, Addy managed/manipulated to get all these comments with that awful title. 🙂
Allie,
Perhaps the word “monster” was a bit strong, so I took everyone’s suggestions and revised to “Tiger”, which fits the summary of the contents more.
Addy has made many wonderful contributions to our site and there’s no need to make such a sweeping statement over the usage of one word.
Indeed …
Tiger mom is somewhat a new term coined in the recent years. Sometimes people get into writer’s block and get hung up on a few translations.
Nothing to be alarmed about.
Jayne,
I have to say, this isnt the first time titles were sensationalised. How about more credibility for readers, where discerning titles are used, instead of these tabloid worthy ones? In fact, the title used on the tabloid mag itself simply states that Angela and Chin Ka lok are preparing for school registration.
I agree with Nicole.
Nicole,
Your suggestion will be taken into consideration for future articles.
@Nicole, don’t feel bad if jayne and them don’t use your advice after all Jayne has done a pretty good job, lol!
I think she meant “tiger parents.”
Isn’t this quite common in HK?
I am a parent too. I feel so sorry for the kids…as special in HK…I am in US…we have the some pressure too…just not as much as in HK…kids have to learn soooooo much now days!
I think the site needs a copy editor.
And someone to vet before publishing. (Don’t think I am the first one mentioning this).
Tremendous would have been a better term. Monster if used in sports would depict something out of the ordinary such as monster home run (hitting the baseball out of the park and stands), a monster putt (making the putt from long distance usually about 30 feet or so),or a monster dunk (where a player slams down the basketball over defender with authority or emphasis).
Wow, typical asian parents. When will they learn that their actions can harm their children emotionally/mentally? Strict parents in the making.
What the heck?? They filled in registration forms. How’s is that ‘strict parents in the making’? Which part of filling in a form constitute ‘strict’ and how does it ‘harm their children emotionally/mentally’? Perhaps there’s just a long waiting list (which I heard is quite common for popular private schools) and they just want to be prepared. If they don’t sign up, then there may be an article titled ‘Bad parents in the making’ and they may be accused of neglecting their child. People sure like to overreact.
Strict is good if children can get a good education. If it is balanced with encouraging parenting, it is beneficial.
Actually, they only signed up, not like they r forcing alyssa to study now at 3 months..
They should start earlier the better because reputable schools are competitive to get in. They are trying the best they can and as all parents they want everything good for teir children. Usually takes a long process like going through applicants, interviewing parents…therefore it’s good to start early. It’s a blessing from the skies for some couple to have kids. Some tries really hard and ends up with nothing so they either raised dogs or adopt children.