Mean Chinese Moms...A Good Idea?

I read an article on the Wall Street Journal Online this morning by a Chinese American woman Amy Chua, entitled Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior. She asks why it is that Chinese children are generally smarter and more skilled than "Western" raised children. And then she goes on to say she knows the answer, because she has personally done it.
Chua is of the opinion that Western (American) parents place to much emphasis on their children's self esteem, feelings, desires and emotional state. Chinese mothers, she claims do not. For example she never let her two daughters attend a sleep over, watch TV or play computer games, have a play date, choose their own extracurricular activities, receive any grade less than an A, not be number 1 in their class, or not play the violin or piano. For the latter two if the girls failed she would drill them for hours and when the finally revolted against her she would revert to tactics of name calling and humiliation, and threaten them with anything she could think of to keep them to keep working. She admits to calling her daughter "trash." She admits she makes them practice for up to three hours a day!
This seems cruel to me at first glance, and I would wager that most of us reading the article would feel the same way. What kind of emotional damage would a kid suffer as an adult after a childhood of incessant pushing and degrading name calling? How would a child develop if he thought his parents didn't love him? Those poor kids could wind up being the next psycho bomber or something.
But Chua argues quite the opposite. She claims her actions show real love for her daughters while Western parents coddle their children right into a disadvantaged life.
She says she pushes her girls because she knows they are smart enough to accomplish anything, and through her pushing they are able to learn that about themselves. She says the fact that Western parents don't push their children or force them to excel, subliminally translates to their kids that mom and dad don't really think they are smart enough to accomplish anything.
She also says things become fun once you are good at them. And to become good you need to practice...a lot. I think her basic argument is that math homework isn't fun, but getting 100% on your algebra exam is. Or learning a foreign language isn't fun, but speaking it fluently is. She says she pushes her daughters through the tough part until whatever they are doing becomes fun and easy for them. And then they enjoy it.
That got me thinking. Not that I would revert to name calling, but maybe she has a point. Kids never want to do anything "good for them". But how many of us as adults would have benefited from being number one in our class, or accomplishing everything we'd ever set before ourselves? I don't mean to criticize my or anyone else's upbringing, but a lot of what she claims to be teaching her daughters (not how) actually seems like good stuff to have as an adult.
So if the result is good, but the method is bad, the question then becomes, how do you get a kid to practice the violin for 3 hour a day, or get straight A's without threatening them? Because that's what it takes to be the best. How many 5 year old's would rather do homework than go to a sleep over? How many teenage boys or girls would rather practice the violin for 3 hours instead of go to the mall and hang out with friends? Not many. And what do kids know anyway? They are kids!
I don't know what to think. I can see both sides. You want your offspring to like you and think you're a "cool" parent, and you want them to be happy, but you also want to do whatever you can to make sure they have every advantage when they reach adulthood. And you know the skills that could make all the difference to them later are not the things they want to do as children.
So here is the question:

(Putting the humiliation tactics aside) Is it better for your child if you are a strict parent or a more compassionate one?

What do you think?