Tiger Mother has become the symbol of Chinese mothers since Amy Chua, a law professor, published her book BATTLE HYMN OF THE TIGER MOTHER in 2011. The title has been used as a neologism to describe a tough, disciplinarian mother, most often Chinese mothers. However, here in Southern California, several hundreds of people gathered on June 11 to memorize K. Y. Tai, a mother of three whose name has been used to name a major building at South Coast Chinese Cultural Center.
This is a new version of the Tiger Mother, a mother who raised her three children when her husband left her when the children were still very young. All three children, who were born in Taiwan, later immigrated to the United States, and luckily, all three took Southern California as their second hometown.
Tai raised and educated her children, and her son, David Sun, co-founded Kingston Technology. When he learned in 2003 that Irvine Chinese School was seeking funding to build a permanent school campus, David decided to donate money to build a major building. David did so to honor his mother, Kuan-Yuan Tai, and when the building was completed in 2005, it was named as the Kuan-Yuan Tai Educational Building to house both the Irvine Chinese School and South Coast Chinese Cultural Center.
A grand ceremony was held on June 11 to mark the 18th anniversary of the K. Y. Tai Educational Building and one of the major events was to launch the book, THE STORY OF KUAN-YUAN TAI EDUCATIONAL BUILDING.
The book is written by Esther Hsiao in Chinese based on the memories of Diana Kong, Tai’s daughter. The book was translated into English by Diana Sun and Illustrated by Siwei Liu.
Besides the major building, there is a Chinese style pavilion, named by David Sun as PAVILION OF FILIAL PIETY AND KINDNESS. FILIAL PIETY shows David’s respect for his mother and KINDNESS describes his mother’s love and affection to him, his sisters and all the children at the Chinese school.
Diana said in the storybook that her mother “believed that being a good person is more important than academic success.”
“She worked as a high school biology teacher for nearly 30 years. As a single mother, she took on both the motherly and fatherly roles and provided us three siblings with a stable and loving upbringing,” Diana said in the book.
Diana told a story in the book that on Chinese New Year, her mother would take them to visit their relatives. Since their relatives lived far away, she would hire a rickshaw bike driver to take them there. Her mother would always tell them to get off the rickshaw when going up the hills so it would be less tiring for the rickshaw bike driver.
“At the time, I found this fun, but later I realized that this was an act of empathy, to be caring and considerate of others,” said Diana.
According to Diana, although her mother was a teacher most of her life, “she never expected us to excel in our school grades. She encouraged us to try our best and praised us each time we improved. As a matter of fact, what she valued most was what kind of person we would become. My mother believed that as long as we contributed to society in whichever way we could, we would live a successful life.”
自從法律教授Amy Chua在2011年出版了她的《虎媽戰歌》以來，虎媽幾乎成為華人媽媽的代號，這個新詞被用來描述一位嚴格的、講究紀律的母親，通常是指華裔母親。然而，在南加州，6月11日有數百人聚集緬懷戴廣源女士，她是三個孩子的母親，南海岸中華文化中心的一座主要建築冠上她的名字。
這是虎媽的一個新版本，戴廣源是一位在單親家庭中獨力撫養三個孩子的母親。這三個在台灣出生的孩子後來移民到美國，幸運的是，他們都將南加州視為他們的第二故鄉。
戴女士撫養並教育她的孩子，她的兒子孫大衛與朋友共同創立了金士頓科技公司。當他在2003年得知爾灣中文學校正在尋求資金建造永久校園時，David決定捐款建造一座主要的建築。David這樣做是為了紀念他的母親戴廣源，當這座建築在2005年完工時，被命名為戴廣源文教大樓，成為爾灣中文學校和南海岸中華文化中心的校址。
6月11日舉行了盛大的儀式，以紀念戴廣源文教大樓落成18周年，並發布一本新書《戴廣源文教大樓的故事》。這本書由戴女士的女兒Diana Kong口述，Esther Hsiao用中文撰寫，Diana Sun翻譯成英文，並由Siwei Liu插圖。
在戴廣源文教大樓旁，還有一座中式的亭子，由David Sun命名為「孝慈亭」。孝表示David對他母親的尊敬，慈描述了他母親對他、他的姐妹以及中文學校所有孩子的愛和關心。
Diana Kong在故事書中說，她的母親「相信做人的道理比知識更重要。」
「…她擔任中學生物老師近30年。作為單親媽媽，她母代父職，給我們兄妹三人豐富的精神生活，讓我們在成長過程中從來不覺得有任何缺乏。」Diana在書中說。
Diana在書中講述了一個故事，說在農曆新年時，她的母親會帶他們去拜訪親戚。由於親戚住得很遠，她會雇三輪車帶他們去。每當上坡時，她的母親總是告訴他們要下車，這樣人力車夫就不會那麼累。
「當時我們只覺得好玩，後來才了解母親處處為人著想的愛心」Diana說。
根據Diana的說法，雖然她的母親一生中大部分時間是一名老師，「…並不看重我們兄妹的學業成績，她只要求我們上課時全力以赴，不管我們考試能否拿到高分，她從不責備我們，反而儘量給予鼓勵，加強我們的自信心。在她看來，只要對社會有貢獻，都是成功的人生。」