Students and parents alike have found a new villain in an unlikely place: a mother’s memoir.

Her name is Amy Chua, but her alter ego is simply Tiger Mom. Chua’s offenses include prohibiting her children from receiving any grade less than an A, watching television and having sleepovers.

Ever since a provocative excerpt from Chua’s book, “Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother,” appeared in the Wall Street Journal under the title “Why Chinese Mothers are Superior,” Chua has become a pop culture phenomenon. Countless interviews, blog postings and other references have surfaced on the Internet and in the media discussing her strict “Chinese” parenting style and the emotional price of raising a conventionally successful child.

I wondered if Chua was really the ogress she was made out to be, although I hadn’t yet formed an opinion of her myself. So when I was offered the chance to hear her in person, I eagerly took advantage of the opportunity.

On Jan. 20, Chua spoke at the Hillside Club in Berkeley at a fundraiser for a local radio station. The event was so popular that the organizers inadvertently overbooked, denying some the opportunity to see Chua interviewed by radio station KPFA’s Aimee Allison.

At first glance, Tiger Mom almost seemed like a tiger cub, smiling so often as she talked almost breathlessly. She began by defending her book as a memoir, not a parenting guide. The tagline of her book is: “about a bitter clash of cultures, a fleeting taste of glory, and how I was humbled by a thirteen-year-old.” Chua claimed that she herself did not select the headline of the Wall Street Journal article and went on to read a passage from her memoir where she came to realize the ramifications of her strict parenting.

Chua easily captivated the audience who laughed throughout the reading, encouraging her to read more than she had originally planned.

However, when Chua started to get into deeper matters, such as her relationship with her own parents, the giggling and chuckling died down. She discussed how she herself grew up with “tiger parents,” recollecting the time when her father (now an electrical engineering professor at UC Berkeley) told her he was disappointed in her for winning a second-place scholastic award. Chua recalled feeling guilty for failing her father, who as a Chinese immigrant worked tirelessly and made many sacrifices to ensure that his daughter could have a good education in the United States.

It was at this point when I made up my mind about Chua and her child-rearing tactics.

I can appreciate the fact that Tiger Mom acts the way she does because people tend to behave like their parents did, especially in matters of parenting.

Teenagers would probably be the first to deny that they will turn out to be at all like their parents, and admittedly this might be true for some. However, many do follow their parents’ lead, consciously or unconsciously. Often, children will take on their parents’ political viewpoints because they are exposed to a certain bias at home. Children might even have the same opinions of relationships or marriage.

Like Chua, my mother recalls her parents’ subtle influence over her choices.

“[My parents] never told me I needed to get a job, but I just knew I had to,” she said.

In turn, I feel that same pressure — what kind of grades I need to earn, when I must include ‘family obligations’ in my plans. Whether I like it or not, I will probably adopt similar parenting styles with my own future children.

Although some criticize Amy Chua for her parenting, I can forgive her, because that is what she experienced growing up. Forcing her child to practice a section of piano music until she learned it — even if that meant skipping a meal or two — felt natural to Chua.

“When Chinese parenting succeeds, there’s nothing like it,” she said. “But it doesn’t always succeed.”

As she explains in her memoir, Chua came to understand that every child is different and has individual needs and eventually altered her parenting style accordingly.

“The best rule of thumb I can think of is that love, compassion and knowing your child[ren] have to come first, whatever culture you’re from,” Chua said to the Wall Street Journal.

Though her parenting methods may not be for everyone, Chua is not the ferocious jungle cat she is portrayed to be. After all, she’s only human.