From Family’s Folk Medicine to Dedicated Chinese Doctor

Ying Wang ’s mother had four children, and she wanted one of them to become a doctor. While this is hardly unusual, her rationale was different: she wanted easy access to her own medical care, as well as to have more caring doctors around. “Doctors were so busy at that time and not able to give enough time and attention to patients. It was hard to get in to see them,” explains Wang. “Now she's disappointed that I'm not still over there,” she says with a laugh, adding that she does visit China every few years, and, yes, she gives her mom free acupuncture treatments. “Last summer I treated her for arthritis and a herniated disk, and it was such a big relief, it made her even more sad when I left!”

But what has driven this good-humored and ambitious 43-year-old faculty member at Bastyr to practice and teach Chinese medicine was much more than her mother’s urging. For one, she has always worked hard. “It’s my personality,” she says. “I always tried to be a top student when I was in school.”

Yet it’s not just achievement for achievement’s sake. Her hard work has always been for the welfare of others. The oldest of four children with two working parents, Wang cooked for the family and cared for her siblings. This included making herbal remedies and administering them. “I was a little like a caregiver, which probably gave me my caring personality,” she says.

She learned the herbal remedies from her father, who had learned them from his mother. “My grandma lived in the countryside and used quite a bit of herbal medicine, and my dad learned from my grandma,” she says. “So when we were little, my dad used a sewing needle to do acupuncture on us.” She concedes that some blood was shed from these primitive methods, but his treatments were indeed effective: they cured fevers and many other maladies.

This “folk medicine” as Wang calls it (for neither her grandma nor her father were in the medical field) even cured her brother of Tuberculosis when he was 6 years old. “My father gave him Chinese herbs every night, and he completely recovered. Now he is a very healthy, huge guy,” she says, gesturing to the ceiling.

After high school, Wang was selected to attend the traditional Chinese medicine school, Heilongjiang University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, studying for eight years to obtain her medical doctor’s degree and master’s degree in traditional Chinese medicine (which is comparable to a PhD in the U.S.), well-trained in both Western and Chinese medicine.

Afterwards she practiced and taught in the teaching hospital at that university’s medical hospital, First Hospital of Harbin Medicinal University, specializing in treating leukemia and other cancers such as digestive and stomach cancer. Her husband worked for a company that transferred him to the U.S. in 1993. She hoped they were only staying temporarily, but her feelings changed when she discovered the growing popularity of Chinese medicine in the U.S. She became intrigued by job possibilities. Initially Wang considered studying for her license as a medical doctor (MD) in the U.S., but then realized, “there are lots of MDs here, but not a lot of Chinese medicine practitioners who can practice both.” After spending a year improving her English at a community college, she started working at Bastyr in 1996.

Wang is an associate professor specializing in teaching Chinese herb classes as well as acupuncture technique classes that students take before they begin practicing acupuncture at Bastyr’s teaching clinic, Bastyr Center for Natural Health. She also supervises students who conduct acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine appointments, and she teaches oncology-related subjects in the doctoral program at Bastyr, one of only two doctoral programs in acupuncture and Oriental medicine in the U.S. Additionally, Wang has a private practice in Mercer Island, Washington, and is also employed as one of only two acupuncturists at the well-respected Seattle Cancer Treatment and Wellness Center. She explains that her experience in China in oncology makes her and the cancer center a good match.

Add three young children to the mix (aged 2, 4 and 7), and you’d think she would be just a bit overwhelmed, but Wang does not feel stressed out. “I enjoy my work,” she says. “Treating patients is like building a friendship. I feel like I’m talking to friends, so there is no stress at work.” Her husband, who is “a very good father,” helps care for the children, and she spends time with her children as much possible. “Friends say I should only do my private practice because I would make a lot more money,” she says. “But my life is not only money. I couldn’t stop teaching. I enjoy working at Bastyr. We all enhance each other’s knowledge, and the teaching enhances my practice and my practice enhances my teaching.”

Her children and husband sometimes tease her, saying she is always studying and working, but she believes it’s important to commit your life wholeheartedly to a meaningful vocation. “I try to teach my kids by example and by my words, ‘If you want to do something, be serious, be honest, and work hard.’” And she makes it look so easy and so satisfying, surely her children and her students at Bastyr will be inclined to follow.

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