By Ashley Irwin
Nashville eye surgeon, Dr. Ming Wang, is debuting his autobiography From Darkness To Sight on Nov 3. His autobiography chronicles his childhood in China during the Cultural Revolution, a very tumultuous time in which schools were closed and millions of young people were forced into a life of poverty and hard labor. Last week, we wrote a story about how Dr. Ming Wang escaped the Cultural Revolution by learning to play music and dance.
After avoiding deportation and poverty, Dr. Ming Wang focused on his future. He has always valued education and wanted to find a way to get back in school. He could not immediately enter the classroom, as the Cultural Revolution stripped many young people of their right to an education and he was forced to be patient and wait for an opportunity.
“China reopened its colleges, but you had to be a 12th grader,” Wang said at a Brentwood Rotary Club event. “I had dropped out in 9th grade three years prior. My dad came home and told me to go back to school the very next day. He wanted me to jump directly three years ahead.”
Wang said he feared for his chances of being accepted into college since there were 10 times more applicants than before, but he was accepted and eventually made his way to America.
During this time in his life, Dr. Wang says he learned invaluable life lessons-patience and gratitude. “Remember that there is always hope, no matter how hopeless the situation is. Be patient and do not give up,” he says.
At 21-years-old, Dr. Ming Wang traveled to Washington D. C. with $50 in his pocket and a Chinese-English dictionary.
“I felt a strange, unfamiliar sensation- the first taste of freedom. For all of my life before that moment, I had been told what to do. Now that I had arrived in America-the land of freedom- this new feeling of independence was refreshing, but it also left me a bit unsettled as well. With freedom also came uncertainty,” he writes in From Darkness to Sight.
Dr. Ming Wang went on to earn a PhD in laser physics and graduated magna cum laude with the highest honors from Harvard Medical School and MIT.
On Thursday, Nov 3rd, you can learn more about what it was like for Dr. Wang to grow up and escape the Cultural Revolution at his book launch party. The event begins at 6:30pm at Generations Church at 408 Church St. in Franklin. Register for the event here. At the event, there will also be a drawing for a free 3D LASIK performed by Dr. Wang. Patrons can also enjoy food, drinks, and music. All proceeds will benefit the Wang Foundation for Sight Restoration, which has helped patients from over 40 states in the U.S. and 55 countries with all sight restoration surgeries performed free-of-charge.
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