Well, the extreme ideas presented in for example books like Tiger Mom are uniquely American. You don't find it in Asia, you could maybe say it is an American idea of what succesful Asian parenting would be like, much like how orange chicken is an American idea of what Asian food is like.
What makes the biggest difference when it comes to educating children is not valuing academics or not, it is about having a safe home situation where children are allowed to explore their interests.
Top tier American homes, I.e. The ones that are the source of their inflated gdp/capita, own their own housing, have servants, inherited old money etc. They push their kids really hard so they can become good inheritors. In China, to get a high level education you mostly just have to prepare well for a general university exam which you can retake as many times you want. While America doesn't just demand high scores, but even seemingly unrelated "competencies" such as sports, parent connections and music. As far as I know, US is the only country with that much emphasis on it. So you can make a pretty strong argument that US elites have a stronger drive than Chinese elites.
But, most kids are not the top 3% wealth families. And when you look at Chinese and American households there, it is a huge difference. Compare divorce rates, poverty rates, people living paycheck to paycheck, parents with drug abuse, criminality etc. Most American kids can't catch up to Chinese ones not because they don't dream as big due to ideological reasons, but because they literally can't dream big when survival, taking care of siblings, bad home situation and so on force them to devote their energy into day to day living rather than their personal goals.
It is not a coincidence that the only western country on par with China when it comes to education is Finland, an unassuming country with nothing special about it, but one whose domestic policies emphazise solidarity.
People from capitalist societies that believe in "great men" theory think that the only way to get more educated kids is pushing them to their indivudal limit. Americans are pushing their kids until a ton of them develop mental health issues, then they see China sprinting ahead and assume China is pushing them even more. But if you think about it, 90% of scientists aren't from rich backgrounds and they didn't have access to extracurriculars. Theyre just from normal families and were able to develop their interests because they had a free environment to do so in.
