Miss Apple: Letters of a Maine Teacher in Kentucky

The author is trilingual, with three different cultural backgrounds. He was born in Peiping (Peking in the old days, now Beijing), China, with the heritage in political affairs from both paternal and maternal sides of his family tree. His education began with home schooling from a private tutor and his father, for four years. In those four years, he was given detailed lessons in political science, and expected to be able to carry on his family tradition in the political arena, in the future. He finished his high school education in the American Methodist missionary school, after spending eight years there. During those eight years, he was so impressed with the American political process and the democratic doctrine that were taught by the American missionary lady teachers, he decided at an early age that he wanted to go to America for post-graduate studies, in order to see and learn. He then spent three years in an American university in Peiping, majoring in pre-med, much to the displeasure of his father. He received his doctorate degree in medicine from a French university in Shanghai, China. He then went to study radiology under Professor Chang Yao-mei. Professor Chang was an assistant of the late Madam Marie Curie who received the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1911 for the discovery and isolation of radium.

He came to the United States of America in 1951 to study general surgery, and went into private practice in Dallas, Texas, after he finished his training in general surgery.

This is the story of that long journey in America for half of a century, amidst the advancement of medicine and science in general, as well as changes in political systems around the world.