It seems Amy Chua, the strict mother who wrote the controversial book "Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother," is not the only pushy parent demanding the best of her offspring. Xu Wenwen meets the Hangzhou man dubbed the "Tiger Father" and his high-achieving son.

Peng Shuiming's 11-year-old son Peng Quhang has more than 100 certificates of merit, trophies and medals for sports, music, art and literature. No wonder the father is noted as Hangzhou's "Tiger Father."

The title "Tiger Father" derives from the recent phenomenon of "Tiger Mother" Amy Chua, a Chinese-born American mother who detailed in a controversy-baiting book how she raises her two daughters with camp-like discipline.

Hangzhou's tiger father says he focuses on developing his son's hobbies more than pushing his academic study, although the boy performs well in school,Primary School Affiliated to Education Institute of Shangcheng District, Hangzhou.

The 11-year-old has surprisingly comprehensive interests including roller skating, football, badminton, swimming and table tennis. He is a national level-3 table tennis player and has swum across the Qiantang River three times (a distance of about 1 kilometer).

He studies calligraphy, painting, electronic organ, mouth organ and trumpet, and is a member of the school band.

Peng Quhang, whose father is a journalist, is also a "young journalist" for Hangzhou.com.cn, a leading local news website, and his school newspaper, taking charge of writing as well as photography.

Since he was six years old, the boy has been achieving all kinds of feats with no signs of stopping. Here are just a few of his 100-plus accolades: First in a 1,500-meter roller skating race, second prize in a Kisei Go (an ancient board game) contest, and awards for painting, playing the electronic organ and calligraphy in different talent competitions.

Last week, his school football squad (where he plays in a forward position) won a gold medal in a provincial tournament.

It is easy to calculate that 100-plus honors in five years means Peng Quhang approximately gets 20 awards a year, but is his father pushing him too much to achieve quick success?

"No, my son lives an ordinary life just like his peers, but one thing different is that I teach him how to utilize time efficiently," his father insists.

Peng Quhang's daily schedule begins when he wakes up at 6am. After washing he does simple exercises such as push-ups and sit-ups for 15 to 20 minutes, and then reads newly learnt English words and Chinese texts for 20 to 30 minutes.

At 6:50am, he leaves for school on roller skates (if it's not raining) to attend the school football team's morning training session for about half an hour. At 8am, his academic classes begin.

When he finishes school, he does homework, watches TV (usually game shows, news or scientific programs), writes some daily reports and verses on computer, and then goes to bed at 9pm.

At the weekend, he trains for football, table tennis, electronic organ and sailing.

"My time for rest is the nap after lunch and breaks between classes," says the young boy. "The last time I had an entire two-day weekend off was when I got hurt during a football match last year."

Hardness or happiness

When Amy Chua released her book "Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother," many parents in the West were shocked and doubted if "her daughters are happy." Similar questions have been directed at Peng Shuiming.

"It depends on how you define 'happiness'," he answers. "If having a kid playing through childhood means happiness, one's happiness won't last once he or she grows up to become an unsuccessful adult."

Despite the busy schedule, the son says he gains happiness from "winning games," "playing with his father" and "touring with the family."

"People may say the boy's schedule is so packed, but the truth is his peers go to cram school or private tutors at weekends, which is a kind of suffering, while I take my son to sports training on weekends, which is what he likes and does not disturb his study at all," Peng Shuiming says proudly, noting that the boy's study ranking is always around the top 20 in his grade.

"As I see it, he should grasp knowledge in class. Why should I pay for similar classes out of school?" the father rejects cram school and says his trick is to motivate his son. "I spank my son, but only when he makes the same mistake, on an exam paper or in life, more than three times.

"No pain, no gain," he explains. "My son is not stupid, so making the same mistake three times suggests he is fooling himself and people around him, which is an irresponsible behavior that needs to be stopped," Peng says. "Kids should be treated as if they are adults. If an adult makes the same mistake three times at work, they will be punished as well."

Born in a small county in Quzhou, Zhejiang Province, Peng Shuiming moved to work and live in Hangzhou through great effort in both his education and career.

To some extent, he shares something in common with Amy Chua who, though her father was a noted scholar in the United States, had to struggle with life in a foreign land as a Chinese descendant.

As Peng recalls, his childhood consisted of farm work and poor education, which he never expects his son to experience.

"I won't have my son be regretful about his boyhood like I was," says the father.

"My aim is to make my son a man who can support himself in the future, those talents will help him walk further," he adds.

In fact, it is rather common to see children in Chinese cities being sent to various extracurriculum classes, such as dance, musical instrument and drawing.

The Hangzhou tiger father has been asked frequently by other parents such as "how can I keep my kids to stick to studying something?" and "why does my kid give up learning something halfway?"

"I tell them the parents' insistence is more important than children's," the strict father says and quotes two examples.

"I've seen a mother at the table tennis club tell her child: 'don't be nervous, we are here only for fun,' which, in my eyes, is a wrong way of comforting, because she has stalled her son's confidence even before the class.

"And I've seen another mom blame her son by saying: 'how could you be defeated by a younger boy?' which is very unreasonable since the boy was new while his opponent, though younger, was much experienced in the club.

"Parents need to know more about the skill and knowledge than their kids if they are determined to cultivate their children's talent," Peng says.

"I seldom chat or simply wait during my son's classes but I learn. I am familiar with the theoretical knowledge of all my son's hobbies so I can educate him when we are out of the reach of the trainers. I even got the certificate of national level-2 judge for table tennis."

Junior Peng agrees, "I am not a genius, but my father is, because he can teach me stuff he didn't really know about before."

Nevertheless, the father describes himself by an unexpected term - "lazy."

"Some parents hold their children's hands all the time when walking, make sure they avoid doing housework or even do homework for them 鈥� but I never do.

"Rather, I tell my son to take care of me when we are out for a walk, so he feels responsible and does not run about," he says. "'Lazy' parents raise hardworking children, and 'hardworking' parents result in 'lazy' kids."