Is Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother a memoir or a guide to parenting?
It's 100 per cent straight memoir. I didn't write the book to lecture people about how to raise their kids. There are lots of ways in which kids can get to a good place. Some have permissive parents, and some drop out of high school and find their own way. I'm fine with that, but this is the story of how I tried to raise my daughters in the same way as my Chinese immigrant parents raised me. It worked in some ways, but not in others.

You're a professor of law at Yale Law School. Why did you decide to write about parenting?
I wrote Tiger Mother in a moment of crisis, after I had a terrible fight with my second daughter [Lulu] when she turned 13. It felt as if my world had collapsed. Lulu started to hate the family, hate the violin, hate me. That's when I went to my computer and wrote the whole book. I put eight years of research into my first book and five years of research into my second, but I put zero into Tiger Mother. I wrote it as this intensely personal thing, almost like a family therapy or a diary.

You raised your daughters with a regime that banned sleepovers and TV and demanded hours of music practice. Are you surprised by the criticism you've received?
I thought the book would be provocative, but not like this. An excerpt in the Wall Street Journal caused an international firestorm. Suddenly it seemed like a million people had an opinion on the way I raised my kids. When I show this book to immigrant friends, they find it funny, but with my western friends it provokes extremely strong reactions. I'm frustrated with all the animosity I've triggered. I don't understand how people aren't shocked by reality TV that shows parents letting their teenage kids develop a substance abuse problem or get pregnant. Yet they say it's monstrous when a parent makes their child play the violin for two hours a day.

And was it your intention to spark such a debate?
Not at all. I'm disappointed that the book ­ is not being reviewed more for its literary merit. I'm not saying it's a classic, but it's more complex than people give it credit for. I love books with unreliable narrators, yet many reviewers don't understand the book's irony and humour. If there hadn't been this initial reaction to the [Wall Street Journal] excerpt - which the paper provocatively titled "Why Chinese mothers are superior" - I wonder if it would have been received in a different way.

What, if any, are the main differences between parenting in China and the way children are raised in the west?
Westerners worry more about their children's self-esteem. In China there's more emphasis on self-discipline and a higher demand to achieve excellent results at school. But these are big generalisations. Maybe the issue isn't Chinese v western values. I think it's more about reclaiming traditional, fundamental American values. My father arrived in America thinking this is the land where you strive to be your best and the land of opportunity. You could achieve success only by working hard.

How has your family reacted to the controversy?
My husband is like a rock. And my two daughters are as tough as nails - they go on the internet and fish out the few nice things that they can find about the book and text them to me.

There are roughly 28 million children in foster care in China. Are your views about the Chinese parenting model outdated?
I recognise that lots of Chinese people don't act in the way I describe, so I use the term "Chinese parent" extremely loosely. I actually think it's more of an immigrant thing - in the United States, I know lots of south Asian, Jamaican or Nigerian parents who raised their kids in the way that I did.

You have been described as repressive, verbally cruel, hard-working, loving and devoted. Which describes you best?
I'm definitely loving, hard-working and devoted. I do regret some of the rude names I have called my daughters, but it's not so bad when you consider the cultural differences. In China it's common to call kids "little fattie" or "little dumb one". l
Interview by John Sunyer
Amy Chua's "Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother" is published by Bloomsbury (£16.99)