Sorry but that's simply not true. You're taking the habits of a small percentage of the Asian population then extrapolating it to the entire continent.
For example - China doesn't mandate high school. The last 3 years are entirely a matter of choice, it's not selective, only voluntary. That means that the parents and kids that people keeping talking about are the ones who've chosen to actually continue school after it become voluntary.
At the primary level they have 121 million students but at the secondary level, including the voluntary high school years, they only have 78 million. A 33% drop off!!!
That tells us that what we see as the typical Asian parent isn't that typical. We only see the parents who choose to continue high school and, presumably, to compete for college spots.
The parents/kids who just don't care enough to continue drop out of the system after their 9th year of education. Even more drop out of the system after high school and never apply for college, locally or abroad. You're making an attribution error. Because you only see the most driven parents, you've mistakenly assumed that they are the norm and not the outliers.
It's the American equivalent of saying that American students are highly driven but only looking at the students who choose to apply to top 25 colleges. Everyone looks brilliant when you ignore the people who don't try. That is the recurring problem when discussing the Asian education culture. People ignore the vast amount of Asians who have little interest in education and only focus on the group that 1) obviously values education and 2) were smart enough to capitalize on that valuation. Selection bias at it's finest.
Every time I bring this up, many people simply refuse to actually research the points I'm making. This is why I say it's an issue of emotional investment. They're unwilling to entertain the possibility that the research will contradict the positions they've taken for granted.