On a daily basis, I visit the online editions of the Financial Times and the European edition of The Wall Street Journal at least thrice each. I occasionally read an article or maybe two, but I usually just skim the headlines and check the stock exchanges. In addition, both newspapers have short lists of most popular articles, which are rather informative, as well. A quick look at them can give me a feeling of what is going on around the world. The lists change from day to day, and a particular article rarely keeps readers enthralled for longer than a couple of days.

But an article entitled “Why Chinese Mothers are Superior” has hogged the top of the list of The World Street Journal for more than a week already. In my experience, this is quite unprecedented. Written by a Chinese woman who teaches at the Yale Law School, it was extracted from a book soon to be published by a major publisher. If I am not mistaken, this will be the third book by the same author. Puzzled by the popularity of this particular article, I just skimmed through it. As the lengthy argument goes, the Chinese mothers are superior to western mothers because they do not respect their children’s individuality or encourage them to pursue their own passions. Rather, they prepare their children by letting them figure out what they are good at, and then they arm them with skills and work habits that no-one can take away. I am simplifying a bit, but that is the gist of the argument, anyhow.

Now, why is this particular article so popular? Western mothers are far from housewives nowadays. They are becoming concerned about their children’s future in view of China’s spectacular success, which they anxiously follow in the news. On top of that, they realize that their children are ending up neither here nor there with their own proclivities. What can they do to help their children, though? Nothing whatsoever, of course. They cannot become Chinese mothers overnight. And their children are not exactly infants any longer, either. Most important, they cannot do a thing to thwart China’s rise or the decline of the west. The best they can do, in fact, is to stop reading the silly article. As well as worrying about it in their spare time. That should be left to the intrepid Chinese mothers. Western children will soon be their concern, too.