[...] “How are you with positive feedback? Because I don’t give it.” That’s fine: I had a Korean piano teacher who was not one for positive reinforcement; plus, my mom’s Chinese. I avoided alluding to Amy Chua because I did not believe I had a tiger mother; not once did Mom (or Dad) ask to see my report card. (Although they did find a way to comment on all other parts of my life—how I chewed at the wrong pace or smiled at the wrong width—I was determined to excel at everything so they would have méi huà jiǎng, a phrase used when something was so good, there would be no words speak.) [...]