When trying to judge whether Jing-Mei or her mother had Jing-Mei's best interest at heart it is important to remember that "Two Kinds" is being told through a limited first person perspective. Meaning, as a reader, you know what Jing-Mei is thinking about the situation, but you are never given any insight as to what her mother might be thinking.
Jing-Mei's mother had a tough life back in China, which leads the reader to believe that the mother is only pushing Jing-Mei to be a prodigy because she wants to make sure that her daughter doesn't have to suffer. But from Jing-Mei's perspective, her mother pursues this goal with unrelenting pressure which has the opposite effect on her daughter. Instead of being a successful prodigy, Jing-Mei distances herself from her mother, and doesn't truly find herself until she herself becomes an adult.
While Jing-Mei's mother is trying to make her daughter successful, Jing-Mei is doing anything within her power to remain true to herself. Jing-Mei is rebelling against her mother, because she doesn't want her mother to control everything about her life.
The answer to whether Jing-Mei or her mother have Jing-Mei's best interests at heart, depends on whose perspective you are viewing the situation from. Since "Two Kinds" depicts Jing-Mei's transition into adulthood, it is easy to side with Jing-Mei in this situation.
At first glance, it seems that Jing-Mei's mother is more concerned about what other people think about her daughter than how her daughter actually feels. The constant struggle to create a child prodigy seems to be a very coldhearted process. Jing-Mei is repeatedly compared to other children and forced to develop all sorts of talents; she is encouraged to become the Chinese Shirley Temple and master the piano.
Looking deeper, however, we see that Jing-Mei's mother does, in fact, have her daughter's best interests at heart. Given her own traumatic background in China, the mother simply wants the best for her daughter and hopes to give Jing-mei the opportunities that she herself never had.
In contrast, Jing-Mei does not realize that her mother is planning for the future. Instead, she focuses on the short term. Specifically, she dislikes being forced to be a prodigy. It is only in adulthood that she realizes what her mother was trying to achieve.
Accordingly, both Jing-Mei and her mother can be said to have Jing-Mei's best interests at heart. They are simply approaching this subject from different angles.
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