TN Christian Chamber

(This article is adapted from a speech Dr. Wang gave in 2009).

First I will briefly discuss China, its Cultural Holocaust and the status of Christianity there.  I will share how I became a Christian and two lessons I’ve learned in life through being a Christian. One lesson is that God has a plan for each of us, even though it may not be apparent to us at the moment.  The second lesson is that God created this world without contradictions.  At times, His plans for us may seem contradictory to what we know and expect in life because we don’t know His overall vision.  So His challenge to all of us is to keep the faith, work hard, do our part, and always firmly believe that He will reveal Himself to us if we truly believe in Him.

China.  China is a country with about 5,000 years of history.  This reminds me of Y2K, when everyone got very nervous that the world was going to come to an end and all computerized systems were going to crash.  I remember seeing a cartoon in the New York Times where, on one side of the world, everyone in America is jumping up and down and very nervous that computers are going to crash and the world is going to end. On the other side of the world are two ancient Chinese men sitting in a pagoda drinking tea, and one says to the other, “What’s the big deal over there?” Underneath the cartoon it says, “Year 4686.”

China is the size of the U.S. with a population of 1.4 billion people.  They have done computer composites where, if you take people’s features from around the world and decide what the people of the world look like based on percentage of population, for some reason, that composite person looks suspiciously Chinese.  In China, the main philosophy is based on family values, balance and harmony.  As you know, in the last 20 years there has been explosive economic development, “the China miracle.”  I will speak briefly about what this means, that it is an historical opportunity for Christians to expand our influence and capture a country that is spiritually at war right now.

The Great Wall of China was built 2000 years ago by the 1st emperor of China, and is the only manmade structure visible from space.  If you were to connect the bricks of the Great Wall, it would go to the moon and back seven times, yet it goes across 2/3 of China horizontally.  It is amazing to think about how they could build this enormous structure on the tip of a mountain! It shows the industriousness and hardworking attitude of the people.

Chinese symbolism. Beijing’s Forbidden City was built for one man, the Emperor.  It is similar to the Vatican only bigger.  Besides the Emperor, it housed several thousand young ladies and men, except these men were actually eunuchs because the Emperor wanted to be the only man there.  The dragon is a symbol of influence and power in the Chinese culture.  Chinese opera is characterized by symbolism, and much like western opera, it is not so much the storyline or how quickly it is performed, but rather the focus is the depth of human feeling.  The southern part of China is very peaceful with its Li River, which inspired several ancient poets.  2000 years ago, the first emperor of China decided 30 years before he died that he wanted to be protected after his death, so he mobilized one third of China to build a huge tomb with 7,000 clay soldiers, each of them with different facial expressions.  The intent for these soldiers was to protect the emperor after his death.

Cultural Revolution or Cultural Holocaust.  It is unfathomable for us in the west to imagine such a thing.  We have difficulty understanding genocide, Hitler, and many other tragic occurrences that are beyond normal human comprehension.  For the ten years from 1966 to 1976, the Chinese government decided that the best way to rule and keep order as a dictatorship was to destroy the country’s youth.  They initiated a policy to deport every junior high and high school graduate to a remote part of the country to be condemned to a life of poverty, and if one happened to escape and make it back to the city, he or she would be incarcerated. Twenty million youth were deported and their futures were destroyed during that ten year period.  Even college entrance examinations were halted at that time.

This tragedy and the others I mentioned show that when there is no democracy or spiritual guidance for human behavior, people can sometimes really go crazy. Interestingly, today if you were to go to China, you would see in business that there are people in their thirties and early forties, and then in their sixties and seventies. There is a missing generation of those in their late forties and their fifties.  This group is missing because when they graduated from high school in the 1960s, they were deported, their futures were destroyed and most of them were never heard from again.

I was caught at the end of the Cultural Revolution.  I was 14 at the time, and a straight-A student when the Chinese government told me and the rest of my junior high school graduating class that we would be deported.  The only way to escape this devastating fate was to have some kind of talent that the government would still find useful, such as playing a musical instrument, because they still had propaganda troupes who needed musicians. That is why I picked up the “er-hu”, a two-stringed Chinese violin with a bow that sits between the two strings.  It is amazing how simple the instrument is because the bow can only hit one string at a time.  There is a contrast between the simplicity of the instrument and the dynamic range of the emotions it can express.  It was a means of survival then, but is now a hobby.  My most recent adventure with it involved accompanying Dolly Parton while she sang on her most recent CD. The song is a beautiful East-West combination.

As I mentioned, I originally learned to play the er-hu in order to avoid banishment.  Unfortunately, the Communist government discovered my little plan and blocked the musicians halfway to their destination.  My parents were both doctors teaching in medical school at that time, but since their schools had been shut down, except for two classes, they smuggled me into their classrooms as an illegal student. I asked my father, “Why do I need to study medicine without any chance of becoming a doctor, especially since I will be deported soon?”  My father replied, “Knowledge will always be useful,” and to this day I still remember his wise words.  Regrettably, the government discovered this illegal student in medical school and kicked me out, so at age 15, I again faced deportation.  Around that time, I met a young man whose father was executed for writing a play opposing the government.  He was a very talented poet, and after teaching myself music composition, we wrote many songs together despite knowing the government would never allow us to publish our work.  One of the pieces we wrote was called “Prisoner’s Song.”  It expressed our longing for freedom, meaning and a future that was better than the life of condemned labor we faced.  In 1976 the proletarian leader died, and China realized what a tragic mistake it had made by destroying its youth for ten years.  To catch up on the education I had missed during the Cultural Revolution, I had to skip my entire senior year of high school and go straight to college.

In my junior year of college, there was going to be a visit by an American professor, so I devised a little plan.  I wanted to go to America so badly, but my parents were earning about $6-8 per month, so there was no way they could support my dream.  So the night before the professor’s arrival, I pulled out all the English textbooks I could find, and I studied.  The next morning, the American professor gave a lecture, and at the end he asked if there were any questions.  Amidst a few hundred very quiet and disciplined Chinese students, I raised my hand very high.  He said, “Yes?” and I asked him a question straight out of the textbook that I had studied the night before.  The question was, “What is the academic load of your school?”  He said, “What do you mean? Can you explain?”  That is when I realized that I had practiced asking a question without practicing how to listen to a question.  So I repeated the same question over and over, with no clue what he was saying back to me.  As it turned out, the English textbook I had studied the night before was a British English textbook. In Great Britain the “academic load” means the number of credits an undergraduate is required to have to graduate. In America we would probably describe it more specifically.  Luckily, he eventually figured out what I was trying to say and answered me, but again I didn’t understand what he was saying.  All that mattered to me is that I got to ask my question, and that was my plan.  Before he left the podium, he pointed at me and said, “That student,  I want to see him in America,” because he was impressed with my persistence in asking him the same question ten times!  In 1982, I was dropped off at the National Airport in Washington, D.C.  I knew no one in this country, but I had $50 (borrowed), a dictionary and an American dream.

Christianity.  Today there are about 70 million Christians in China alone, which represents only about 5% of China’s 1.4 billion population.  At one time in history, there was an opportunity for Christianity to truly exert its influence during the Yuen Dynasty in the 13th century, around the time of Marco Polo.  The Pope sent 4 priests to China, but they turned back halfway through the journey because of the difficulty of the journey. This was unfortunate, as there would have been an opportunity for Christianity to grow at that time if they had persevered.  Fortunately today, most of the Christians in China can pray openly. Only a few years ago, one would have to pray underground due to very strict government rules against speaking openly about politics or religion.

Today, despite its economic development, the Chinese people need spiritual guidance and a moral compass.  With the falling of the Berlin Wall and the crumbling of Communist ideology that we all know doesn’t work, there is a spiritual vacuum at this historical moment, and a chance for Christian brothers and sisters around the world to venture into China to spread the Word of Jesus Christ.  I have been involved in the translation of the 7th version of the Bible in Chinese.  My contribution was trying to influence the publishers to make the new translation in modern Chinese in order to truly influence the younger generation.  The language used today is very different from what was used in China years ago. An example of this is the word “attachment.” One might say something like “emotional attachment,” but a young person would say something like “I’ll send you an attachment.”  These two versions of the word have very different meanings.  So only by using the modern language of our time in translating the Bible, can we truly capture the younger generations.

How did I become a Christian? I was not born one, and I was not one when I came to the United States. This situation is similar to John Wang’s, and I appreciate that he introduced me to CEO Fellowship.  I had searched fervently through science about many things in life, and it is interesting that the more I studied, the more I realized how little could be explained. So I really got into an emotional and moral crisis. Where do the answers lie?  I had believed that the more I studied science, the more I would be able to find these answers.  So where would I find them?

I believe it is very important to have a good mentor in your life, and at that time there was a professor who I respected greatly for his scientific knowledge.  He took me out to lunch one day.  He knew that I was struggling with the increasing inability of science to explain things, so he pointed into the distance and said, “Ming, what is that across the street?”  I replied, “That’s a car.”  He said, “What is the difference between a car and a human brain?”  I said wryly, “A human brain is much more complex.”  He seemed to anticipate that I would have that response and said, “Do you think a random collection of scrap metals could assemble themselves into a car?”  I said, “No way!”  He said, “How about the human brain?”  I said, “That is even much more unfathomable.”  He calmly replied, “You understand my point.”  This professor, Stanley Hand, really opened the door for me to look into an entirely new world with which I was not familiar.  Through years of studying, watching and observing friends who had walked with the Lord much longer than I had, I’ve learned much and I still have much more to learn, but I feel that we can find the answers we seek. God knows what we need in order to seek Him, and my becoming a Christian happened through coming with a question and trying to find the answer, just as I bravely did with the American professor so many years ago in China!

Two lessons I have learned as a Christian.  The first lesson is that God has a plan for each of us, even though at the time, that plan may not be apparent to us.  For example, if I look back at my life at age 14, I was a straight-A student longing for a happy life, and facing the possibility of it being so tragically cut off with 20 million others through deportation and a lifetime of misery. Of course, like anyone would in this situation, I asked myself why this was happening.  What is the purpose of this devastation?  I did not understand.  Also, coming to this country at age 21, penniless and not knowing anyone, I wondered why did God bring me all the way to the other side of the globe?  What’s the purpose of this?

In 1997, I finally completed my education and training after 31 years, earning two doctoral degrees in laser physics and medicine. I got my first job ever at Vanderbilt as the director of the entire Laser Sight Center. It was a great job, and an offer that was too good to refuse.  So I moved to Nashville, and I continue to call Nashville my home.  However, I had questions about what the purpose was in 31 years of schooling.  At the time it was not clear to me, but I have begun to catch a glimpse of the wisdom of God, and I truly believe He has a plan for each of us and every experience we have is a piece of that plan.  I began to understand that, perhaps by allowing me to go through the devastating miseries at the young age of 14, and the uncertainty and pennilessness of coming to a vast new land at 21, then studying for years not knowing where it would go, God truly wanted me to appreciate what I have today.

Sometimes my friends will say, “Ming, how do you have time to do all that you do?” and my answer is, “God and passion.”  You have to be passionate in what you do and believe God has a plan in it.  Also, after all these years of training, I understand that modern medicine is a combination of medicine and technology.  You can only truly deliver the best care to your patients if you thoroughly understand high tech medical technology, such as lasers.  A laser cannot just be a “black box” to a doctor when you are talking about someone’s vision for the rest of his or her life.  So, at the time it was not clear to me, but now I realize the wisdom of God wanting me to serve my patients better by knowing science, medicine and high technology, so I can combine them to deliver the best, modern quality of care.  In summary, God does have a plan for each of us, and we have to trust that even when it is not apparent to us.

The second lesson I’ve learned is that God has created this world without contradictions.  It may appear to be contradictory to us at times because we have limited knowledge and the lack of foresight.  One has to have faith and confidence that God will reveal Himself to us if we do our part and truly believe in Him.  He is not going to reveal Himself to us unless we do our part—we must first seek, and THEN we will find!  Or as I like to say, it takes two to tango!

One example of this second lesson is in medicine, where I’ve been personally involved in research.   The question involves embryonic stem cell transplantation.  Should we do research on stem cells?  What about embryos? These are human lives; should we not do research on them? If not, then the next time we get an infection, we shouldn’t use antibiotics because those were the fruits of research.  How can we resolve this conflict?  What was God’s original intention for us as human beings regarding this example of stem cell research?  What should we do?  How do we find a moral compass to guide how we should deal with the stem cell issue?

For example, if you have an eyeball with blindness due to trauma, it is a situation that is largely incurable today.  This blindness occurred because the person was scarred in the healing process of the injury. So I started a line of research with a field of researchers from Harvard 20 years ago to find out how we can find a way to restore sight by preventing scar formation.  We then came upon the phenomenon of fetal wound healing– a fetus inside the mother’s womb before birth has the ability to regenerate.  An unborn child can heal without scars.

It is interesting to note that this discovery was made when I was already a Christian, so I asked God why He created us that way–an adult to heal with a scar but a fetus without.  I gradually realized that in an adult’s world, if you get cut, your priority is to heal quickly to prevent bleeding and infection.  The price you pay for the speed of healing is disorganization or scarring.  If the same injury happened to a child inside the mother’s womb, there is no hurry to heal.  It is a sterile, fluid environment where the baby can heal, taking all the time that is needed, so the baby actually has the time to regenerate and heal in an organized way without scarring.

The problem we faced 20 years ago at Harvard was how to do research and understand how a fetus heals, in order to benefit adult blinded patients, without harming the baby.  It seems there was no way to resolve this conflict.  If you are going to do research on babies to understand how the baby’s tissue heals, then you have to harm the baby in some way.  But as Christians, we have moral and ethical principles.  A baby is a human life.  But if we don’t do the research, then we may never have the opportunity to understand how humans can heal without scarring.  It appears to be such a contradictory world, i.e., fetal wounds healing so wonderfully but we can’t research it thoroughly. What is the solution?  What was God’s original intention in leading us to this valuable information?  Did God really create a contradictory world?

It was a problem plaguing many, many scientists for a long time…until we discovered research done by some scientists and a professor, and we started extending their research in the area of the amniotic membrane.  It is a membrane surrounding an unborn child before birth that connects to the baby’s umbilical cord.  After a caesarean section, the baby is born and the sac and amniotic membrane are discarded. Magically, miraculously, even though this membrane has the same healing characteristics as a baby’s tissue, it was connected to the baby but not part of the baby. So we started to do more research.  The hope was if we transplanted the post-birth amniotic membrane onto a wound, then maybe healing would be possible, since it had the same properties as before the birth of the baby.  We started looking at covering the injured eye with the amniotic membrane to recreate a fetal-like environment.  A magical thing occurred—we discovered that underneath the amniotic membrane, the adult eye wakes up.  It looks up and says, “Oh I guess I was wrong; I’m not born yet,” and it reactivates the regenerative ability it used to have before birth.  The body starts to heal without scar!  We then remove the membrane 2 weeks later, and instead of seeing a blind, painful eye, we see clear eyes with vision.

The best part, as a Christian involved in the research of this miracle, was to find that our discovery was God’s original intention.  God gave us an opportunity which we stumbled upon, and because we had persistence, didn’t give up and didn’t accept a contradictory world attitude, He revealed His intention to us.  We  as Christians had the faith and confidence that God created a perfect world, and though it may have appeared to be contradictory in this situation because we didn’t know what to do, we moved forward in faith until God showed us what He wanted us to do.

We had one patient who had been blind for 30 years, had received 15 failed conventional surgeries, and had been declared irreversibly blind.  After the amniotic membrane graft procedure, the patient’s sight was restored.  Another patient had a devastating autoimmune disease which was very painful, and had been blind for many years.  This was a very interesting case because at the time, we only had amniotic membrane tissue from an African American individual and this patient was a Caucasian.  I told him, “John, we can use African American tissue on you, or we can wait.”  He said, “Dr. Wang, go for it.”  He is now the only man of his kind walking around on the planet–a white man with black eyes.  As the research developed, we realized that only a few specialized surgeons and centers qualified to do this surgery even existed, yet people were getting injured everywhere and all the time.  We also found that the membranes must be grafted within 24 hours after the injury, before the scarring process starts.  How could we accomplish this fete?  Again, the faith issue came into play.  God had the solution, though it wasn’t apparent to us at that time.  All we could see was that surgical grafting technology and training would take a long time to spread around the world, but we couldn’t give up.  We needed to have faith and keep plugging away, trusting that God would reveal the solution to us when we had truly done all our homework.  In this case, contact lenses were His answer.  Our team discovered that if you affix the membrane under a contact lens and then store it in a bottle, anyone who has basic medical training in an emergency room and who can put a contact lens on a patient will be able to immediately start the regenerative scar-preventing process of healing.  That became our solution to the problem.

Amniotic membrane contact lenses create a fetal-like environment, tapping the fountain of youth– reactivating the regenerative ability within each of us that we had before we were born. It is part of God’s original design to be able to advance science without compromising moral or ethical principles.  As a scientist and a Christian, this is a beautiful example for me personally, because using the membranes poses no moral or ethical dilemmas, and yet it was connected to the baby before birth.  When we discovered this we were so overjoyed, and I felt like God was up in heaven saying, “Yes, I told you all a long time ago to trust me and then things will happen. You are human beings, I am God, so just believe in me.”

With regard to my work in China, I go there 6 or 7 times a year.  Our healthcare system is called HC of China.  It is the largest private eye hospital in China, and a third of our resources are devoted to charity.  In China, charity and philanthropy are less prevalent than in the United States, and I am often asked, “Why are the people of the US willing to give so much charitably, yet a huge country like China is not as giving?”  My answer is faith, or lack thereof.  I feel that if a person truly believes in God, he or she would confidently know that God is watching over us and our duty as human beings is to help other human beings who are in need.  I think that one of the fundamental driving forces in the Christian faith is to give and help others.

I travel to approximately twenty countries per year to lecture.  When I am not in Nashville, there are no surgeries performed through my practice because I want to do every surgery for my patients myself.  I feel that is the best way to demonstrate your responsibility to your patients.  This patient was the first bladeless LASIK surgery patient in China–the first person out of 1.4 billion people to receive this state-of-the-art procedure.  Chinese hospitals are working with U.S. medical establishments, with a team of doctors actively involved internationally in charity healthcare guided by Christian principles. In various ways, we have helped patients from over 40 states in the US and 55 countries worldwide, with doctors donating all their medical services.

You may have heard the story of the Indian child who I treated last year named Kajal.  Two years ago Kajal was in Calcutta, India sleeping soundly when her stepmother intentionally blinded her by pouring acid into her eyes.  She became totally blind and was then abandoned in a train station. A Christian social work group called the Society of Underprivileged People, or SOUP, rescued Kajal in the train station and found that her eyes were severely damaged and totally blind.  Again, guided by Christian principles and the loving hearts of Christian brothers and sisters, Kajal was rescued by the group, who began searching around the world for a surgical team that could restore Kajal’s sight.  They contacted many medical centers in the United States, and after a year or so, they found us and through the Wang Foundation for Sight Restoration, we raised money and brought Kajal and her caretaker to the United States.  We performed one surgery and improved her vision slightly, but she will still need many more surgeries over the next several years.

Our foundation has a gala once a year to raise funds to help blind people like Kajal to see, with the doctors donating their services, and we call the gala… the “EyeBall.”  At the EyeBall 2007 on October 7th, Kajal was our featured guest.  Amidst all the beauty of the ballroom dancing – the Viennese Waltz, the ball gowns and tails–we all became quiet and listened to the words of the five-year-old Kajal, realizing that her world at that time was without sight, without color, and a dark world because she could not see.  Further, we reminded ourselves of the value of our own ability to see and our need to help those who cannot see.

I am the organizer of the EyeBall, and I was really amazed to see that over 100 other people stepped in to help Kajal while she was here. Most were Christians.  How amazing are the giving spirits from all around the world that are helping this courageous child in her journey from darkness to sight.  All the adults present in that ballroom were strangers to Kajal, and none of us were related to her, yet God is able to truly connect human spirits. That is the common link.

When the dancing started, I stood up and since I love dancing, many of the ladies were looking around wondering who I would ask to dance with me for the first dance. I walked across the dance floor and asked Kajal for the honor of the first dance of the evening, and she obliged  me.  You can see in the picture that even though she was not able to see, she was still smiling and so joyful.  The reason for this is that, even though physically she can not yet see–though we hope to restore that one day–spiritually she can see far more than many much older than she is.  Finally the moment came when we gave the microphone to Kajal, and she said she wanted to sing a song for all of us.  So in front of 400 adults, she sang a song called “Jesus Loves Me.”  There wasn’t a dry eye in the room.

I appreciate the opportunity to share with you today about my humbling experiences that led to me becoming a Christian, as well as the lessons I have learned.  On the spiritual path of walking with God, I regard myself as only a child.  I have so much more to learn from all of you who are Christians.  You have walked with the Lord longer and understand faith deeper, so I am excited to be part of CEO Fellowship, and leading our businesses by Christian principles.

I spoke today about China and its ancient history, the Cultural Revolution and Cultural Holocaust, and the status of Christians in China. I also shared how I became a Christian through not being able to find life’s answers in science but rather in God’s teachings in Christianity, as well as the two lessons I have learned as a Christian.  The first lesson is that we go through life and may not realize what God’s purpose is for us, but the challenge is to keep the faith and believe He does have a plan.  Besides the examples I gave you earlier, I also had the chance to restore the sight of a Mexican boy who became blind at seven. When we restored his vision, he was 17—that’s ten years of blindness.  During that time, he had learned Braille and written language in Spanish.  When we completed his final surgery, before I removed the patch, I still wasn’t sure if God wanted him to see, even after 12 surgeries.  So I held hands with everybody in the room and said, “God, please help us accept whatever your will is here.”  I think the real challenge of being a Christian isn’t asking God for what you want, but asking God and accepting what He gives.

Finally as a scientist and a Christian, the second lesson I have learned is that, especially in science, sometimes things appear to be contradictory–do you do stem cell research or not? The world may have a contradictory solution, but as Christians we need to have a fundamental confidence that God has created a perfect world and we simply need to move forward as we are led, have faith and confidence in Him, and if we do our part, He will reveal Himself to us.  These are only a few of the lessons I’ve learned so far in my life as a Christian.

Ming Wang, MD, PhD
Harvard & MIT (MD, magna cum laude); PhD (laser physics)
Founding President, Tennessee Chinese Chamber of Commerce
Founder and Chairman, Wang Foundation for Sight Restoration
International President, Shanghai Aier Eye Hospital
Clinical Associate Professor of Ophthalmology, University of Tennessee
Director, Wang Vision Institute

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About the writer: About Dr. Ming Wang: Ming Wang, MD, PhD, is the founding president of our state’s first Chinese chamber of commerce, the Tennessee Chinese Chamber of Commerce, a Harvard and MIT graduate (MD, magna cum laude), and an internationally renowned LASIK eye surgeon. Tennessee is currently ranked #1 in the US in the growth rate of export to China. The mission of the Tennessee Chinese Chamber of Commerce is to help our state continue its growth in export to China. Dr. Wang is a co-owner and medical director of the largest private eye hospital group in China today (which holds 10% of China’s eye care market), with most of its medical instruments imported from the US. As an eye surgeon, Dr. Wang has performed over 25,000 LASIK procedures (including on over 3,000 doctors) and is one of the designated LASIK surgeons for ABC’s national hit reality TV show “Extreme Makeover”. During the Cultural Revolution in China in the 1970s, a teenage Ming played a Chinese musical instrument called the er-hu in an effort to escape being deported to a remote part of the country where he would be condemned to a life of poverty and hard labor, a devastating fate that fell upon 20 million youth in China. Dr. Wang has come a long way from the penniless young man he was when he arrived in the US in 1982, and is now one of the few LASIK surgeons in the world who holds a doctorate degree in laser physics. He published a paper in the world renowned journal Nature, holds several US patents for his inventions of new biotechnologies to restore sight, and performed the world’s first laser-assisted artificial cornea implantation. Dr. Wang established the Wang Foundation for Sight Restoration, a 501c(3) charity foundation which has helped blind patients from over 40 states in the US and over 55 countries worldwide, with all sight restoration surgeries performed free of charge. Dr. Wang can be reached at: Ming Wang, MD, PhD, Wang Foundation for Sight Restoration, 1801 West End Ave, Ste 1150, Nashville, TN, 37203, 615-321-8881, drwang@wangvisioninstitute.com, www.wangfoundation.com.

Tags: Ming Wang, Religion, Science