A GIFT FROM CHINA

(New Foreword for Inside China Today)
By E. Grey Dimond, M.D.

In September 1971Dr. Paul Dudley White, Ina White, Mary Clark Dimond and I had the unexpected good fortune of being invited to the People's Republic of China. The American ping-pong players had preceded us by a month or two; we had the privilege of being the first medical academic group to have been in China in 25 years.

Now, in 2013, Americans are in China by the thousands and equally, Chinese students are here in the USA. In fact they are here in larger numbers than any other foreign country. Business entrepreneurs are opening for-profit pursuits in each other's countries.

As I have reached my very senior years, I take sincere pleasure in the large chapter of my own life that was China.

My 1971 support for observing the return of great ancient China was Edgar Snow. He returned to China in the last decade of his life after an absence of more than 20 years. He published in the USA honest stories of his China observations: of limb re-implantation, surgery with acupuncture anesthesia, and urban birth control. His writings were criticized in the USA as impossible flawed observations. His response was to ask China to invite American physicians to China and for those physicians, hopefully, to verify the accuracy of his reports. This we did.

Through my friendship with Snow, I gained also the friendship of Huang Hua, the Foreign Minister of China and a long ago student of Snow's at Yenching University.

As did many others, I wrote books about this major adventure. Decades later, Huang Hua guided the publication of a handsome 50 volume set of books by foreign observers, my "Inside China Today" included. I thoroughly enjoyed this compliment and have long wanted to have extra copies of this beautifully crafted volume of my book.Peoples Friendship Society of China vice president, Shu Zhang, responded by involving Peking University. He and Sun Hua, secretary-general of the China Center for Edgar Snow Studies and professor at Peking University, visited me at Diastole in April 2013.

Sun Hua informed me that his university would present me a sizable printing of my book as a gift. They also kindly asked if I would add a preface to properly introduce this new printing. This is that preface. I, but inadequately, express my appreciation of Peking University’s generous effort and, equally, for the roles played by Sun Hua and Shu Zhang in creating this much appreciated gift.

E. Grey Dimond, MD
Distinguished Professor Emeritus
University of Missouri