Idealism ⁽⁷⁾

Dear young friends aspiring to study medicine: It is again the season for filling out college entrance examination preferences. Every year at this time, some among my readers ask me whether they should study medicine, and if so, how they should fill out their preferences.

Time flies, and once again it is the Dragon Boat Festival. Though the annual wishes are ever the same, I still earnestly hope that this greeting of "peace and well-being" may come true. As someone in medicine, I know only too well what health and…

Over the weekend I discovered an audiobook narration of the Biography of Qian Xuesen on the WeChat Reading app, and, curious, I gave it a listen. Once started, I could not stop. I have long admired Qian Xuesen and knew something of his story, but…

June 6, 2025 was the last day before that year's gaokao. After breakfast that day, my father and I went to my mother's grave to pay our respects, telling her that the next day her 46-year-old son would once again walk into the exam hall…

Wandering for three thousand years, at last he leaves his cloud-shoes on the westernmost peak. The door is shut; the beast-ring knocker gives scattered sounds. Who returns on the front steps? Who returns begging, star by star? Then an ancient, masculine voice rises in the…

This morning I read, in Singapore's Lianhe Zaobao, an interview with the 83-year-old investor Jim Rogers. Of the whole interview, two sentences left the deepest impression on me: first, "Anyone should stick to what they love"; second, "Don't follow the crowd—history shows they are usually…

A monk asked the Buddha: What is the greatest strength? What is the purest light? The Buddha said: Forbearance under insult is the greatest strength, because it harbors no harm and is also peaceful and sound; one who endures has no evil and is sure…