Tiger Mom, Meet Wolf Dad: Beat Your Kids Into the Ivy League

NPR, And You Thought The Tiger Mother Was Tough:

Tiger Mother Amy Chua, the superstrict Chinese-American disciplinarian, became an overnight sensation in the U.S. this year when she wrote about her tough parenting style. But she looks like a pussy cat next to her mainland Chinese equivalent, "Wolf Dad" Xiao Baiyou.

Xiao is the latest media sensation in China — a father who not only beat his son and three daughters, but boasts about how he did it. ...

Wolf Dad, as he's been nicknamed, wrote a book that was originally titled Beat Them Into Peking University. It was later changed to the not-quite-as-catchy So, Brothers and Sisters of Peking University. He's been doing the chat shows lately, laying out his system for getting three of his four kids into China's top school, Peking University.

Xiao, 47, describes himself as the emperor of his family. As such, he's laid down an extraordinary system of rules for his children. "I have more than a thousand rules: specific detailed rules about how to hold your chopsticks and your bowl, how to pick up food, how to hold a cup, how to sleep, how to cover yourself with a quilt," Xiao says. "If you don't follow the rules, then I must beat you." For each violation of the rules, such as sleeping in the wrong position, the penalty is to be hit with a feather duster on the legs or the palm of the hand. If it doesn't leave a mark, then it won't make an impact, Xiao says.

Never mind sleepovers, his kids weren't even allowed friends. He started beating them when they were 3 years old, and stopped at age 12. "From 3 to 12, kids are mainly animals," he says. "Their humanity and social nature still aren't complete. So you have to use Pavlovian methods to educate them."