Chinese Parents has you work through a total of 48 rounds, building up stats like IQ, EQ or memory in each one. You can then use those stats to learn skills and meet your parents’ expectations.
But here’s the catch: Your parents’ expectations are ridiculous. For example, besides having to pass the college entrance exam at the end, your character will have to constantly earn good grades, win elections to become class president and bag awards in talent shows. And from time to time, you have to put other kids to shame in public in order to earn
face for your parents.
It’s during the “Face Duels” with other kids that your learned skills are especially handy. These skills can be absolutely ludicrous, and depending on their absurdity, they deal varying degrees of damage to an opponent’s face (or dignity). The first to lose all their “face” loses the duel.
For example, after you’ve taken a few English classes, your mom will flaunt that you have a “London Accent.” This might not sound all that special, but speaking the Queen’s English does sizable damage to your opponent. Better yet, if you’ve taken a few probability classes, you will then unlock a skill called “Casino Champ,” which deals even more damage than speaking like a Harry Potter character.
Your opponent also has an assortment of preposterous skills to counter you. One of these skills is literally just called “Success,” which is described as something your opponent acquires after spending all his time studying. This skill, as the name might suggest, could cost your mom a significant amount of face.
Needless to say, these battles and vaunted skills are just hyperbolic caricatures of real life. But they’re also heavily rooted in reality.