The story of Yue Yue has outraged China and the world. In a prosperous city in Southern China, two-year old Yue Yue was crossing the street when she was hit by a van. The driver stopped, realized he had hit a child, and then drove on, running her body over a second time with his rear wheels. Over the next six minutes, a full 18 passersby notice her writhing on the ground but do nothing. A second truck runs over her legs. She becomes increasingly motionless, until eventually an older garbage collector woman comes along and calls for help. Yue Yue died at the hospital.

The incident has sparked a huge national debate about the condition of the Chinese moral spirit. While I have my own opinions about that, I don’t want to point specifically to Chinese morality. I remember the first time I heard about Kitty Genovese in AP Psych class, and how a dozen witnesses heard her cries for help as she was stabbed and raped to death.

The lack of compassion for others was what drove me into medicine, and in particular, the study of infectious disease. In my freshman year of college, I could barely keep my heart from pouring out my body as I watched the ostracization of HIV+ children in China as documented in “The blood of Yingzhou district”.  People affected by infectious diseases suffer a double-edged sword of physical and social consequences; no one wants to associate with a sick person who either committed a supposedly immoral act or can transmit the disease to others. I wanted to become a doctor who could provide those affected by a stigmatized illness the compassion and care they needed.

As it was the social impacts of disease that first attracted me to medicine, so too do I increasingly realize that the solution must lie in the social, not medical realm. Medicine can treat or cure, but only a shift in mindset can address the root causes. People need a new moral mindset that does not disparage these individuals in the first place. Thinking these thoughts as I study detailed and obscure anatomy only serves to depress me.

I want to share an excerpt from the foreword to one of Lu Xun’s books, A Call to Arms. Lu Xun is one of the most (if not the most) celebrated writer of modern Chinese literature, who rejected traditional Chinese culture as morally corrupt, and wrote in order to “awaken” the Chinese people. In fact, he was originally a medical student but discarded that profession in favor of literature. He writes…

These inklings took me to a provincial medical college in Japan. I dreamed a beautiful dream that on my return to China I would cure patients like my father, who had been wrongly treated, while if war broke out I would serve as an army doctor, at the same time strengthening my countrymen’s faith in reformation.

I do not know what advanced methods are now used to reach microbiology, but at that time lantern slides were used to show the microbes; and if the lecture ended early, the instructor might show slides of natural scenery or news to fill up the time. This was during the Russo-Japanese War, so there were many war films, and I had to join in the clapping and cheering in the lecture hall along with the other students. It was a long time since I had seen any compatriots, but one day I saw a film showing some Chinese, one of whom was bound, while many others stood around him. They were all strong fellows but appeared completely apathetic. According to the commentary, the one with his hands bound was a spy working for the Russians, who was to have his head cut off by the Japanese military as a warning to others, while the Chinese beside him had come to enjoy the spectacle.

Before the term was over I had left for Tokyo, because after this film I felt that medical science was not so important after all. The people of a weak and backward country, however strong and healthy they may be, can only serve to be made examples of, or to witness such futile spectacles; and it doesn’t really matter how many of them die of illness. The most important thing, therefore, was to change their spirit, and since at that time I felt that literature was the best means to this end, I determined to promote a literary movement.

Lu Xun, I need your genius mind, bold spirit, and big courage. The full foreword can be found here.