I have only known my mother as a quiet shy woman. But in her 20s, this brave young American born, ethnically Chinese woman who spoke no Chinese, ventured to teach English in Hong Kong, at a time when Imperial Japan was invading China, and war clouds were looming. 我的记忆里我的妈妈是个安静、羞涩的女子，但在她20多岁的时候，这个出生于美国，有中国血统但不会说中文的勇敢女性冒险来到香港教授英语，其时日本帝国正入侵中国，战争乌云压境。 A few years after arrival in Hong Kong, she was notified…

Since I’m Asian, and look Asian, I often get a question like, “where are you from?” I like to pull the questioner’s leg, and answer, truthfully, “I’m from Cincinnati.” After all, I have lived in Cincinnati 47 years, and that’s half a century, most of my life, which is really where I’m from! The person asking the question might persist,…

I think that names are extremely important. So when I bring doctors from the USA to China, I help to give them a real Chinese name. Chinese names all have significance, and each word means something, so it is especially important to give a proper name and not just a transliteration, a translation according to the sound of the word…

自我十岁开始我就有了一个真人骨骼作为我的朋友。 我爸爸是一位 外科解剖医生，他有一套多余的人体骨骼。他把他带回家给我这个理所当然“将成为”医生的长子。 I have had a skeleton as a friend since I was probably 10 years old. My father was a surgical anatomist, and he had an extra set of human skeleton bones, which he brought home to give to his oldest son, who of course was “going to be a doctor,” 我仔细地从头到脚考察这个人体骨骼朋友发现他实在很有趣，因为他是真的人但不是活的我猜想他是谁呢？从哪儿来？但是我从未找到这个答案。 I would examine my skeleton friend…

Helen McGehee faithfully served in Guizhou, China with her husband John during a very difficult time in China’s history. Civil war was raging, the Imperial Japanese invasion had left the country in shock, and everything was chaotic. Even today many parts of mountainous Guizhou remain primitive, and one can imagine the conditions they lived in at the time. 海伦麦吉（Helen McGehee）和丈夫约翰在贵州虔诚侍奉上帝的时候，中国正处在历史上一个非常困难的时期。当时内战肆虐，日军侵略使国家陷入瘫痪，一切混乱不堪。今天，贵州山区的许多地方仍然保持原有样貌，人们可以想象当时他们居住的条件。…

The brain is a wonderful organ. I can easily remember things that happened 30, 40, 50, even 60 years ago, with vividness that sometimes astonishes me. Events that had a great impact on my life especially come into focus, often in great detail. And as I am recounting a story over coffee with someone, further details amazingly and unexpectedly emerge,…

My teenage son and I were chatting in a hotel room, in a country that had just opened its borders to the outside world. We were facing an open window, 50 feet from another tall building. Between my son and me was a nightstand with an empty drinking glass on a plate. It was bright daylight. Suddenly, the glass shattered…

It was unofficial Civil War and Sion-Japanese War time in China, and the Chinese immigration officer was very surprised. Why was this American born Chinese, “ABC” young woman, in her twenties, coming to China? She did not look adventurous at all, and she did not speak any Chinese. So, he asked her, in English, “why are you here?” To which…

(Anon 与 Dixia翻译) Have you ever been to Amsterdam, Holland? You might think, what is there to see there? I suggest that you must see the home of Corrie ten Boom, famous author and speaker, and subject of a touching movie called “the Hiding Place,” about the Nazi German experience, in the life of one family committed to serving God,…

Coffee Reggiegrams: what goes on in village schools all over the world? And who are their dedicated teachers? 曾叔叔短短信： 世界各地的乡村学校都在做什么？谁是敬业的教师？   What does the world outside look like? As part of my medical mission to China, beginning informally over 30 years ago in the mid 1980s, I was privileged also to teach in many middle and high schools, some of…