Eileen Gu is intensifying the anxieties of China’s “chicken parents”

Many Chinese parents are known for obsessively trying to raise the perfect child and doing everything possible to ensure their admission into an elite university-the equivalent of helicopter parents in the US. The kids of such parents have been dubbed jiwa, or baby chicks, a reference to a banned 1950s Chinese treatment of injecting chicken blood to increase energy. The parents are called "Chicken blood parents," or just "Chicken parents." US-born Gu is setting a high bar for jiwa parents, and fomenting the anxiety generated by parenting in a country where opportunities for the young are starting to seem limited. How to become an Eileen Gu Chinese parents have long been obsessed with chasing role models to guide their parenting. "Perhaps Liu started the trend of jiwa many urban parents adopted intensive parenting style and aspired to drive their children to successful routes, which were particularly defined by academic successes," said Liu, the sociologist. Many bloggers have recently posted articles titled "How to become an Eileen Gu," or "How to become a woman like Gu's mother," in which they urge parents to encourage their kids more, or push themselves to be more like the senior Gu, so they can offer their children more. The pushback against Eileen Gu-induced anxietySome have concluded that Gu's success is actually proof that most jiwa parenting won't work as it is not built upon kids' real interests.