Ｉｎ　Ｍｅｍｏｒｙ　ｏｆ　Ｊｏｒｄａｎ　Ｍ．Ｐｈｉｌｌｉｐｓ

Ｚｈａｎｇ　Ｙａｎ

In the vocabularies used by the Chinese today, “Bethune” is the ultimate synonym for the noble figure.It came from the period of anti-Japanese war when a Canadian physician Norman Bethune came to the frontiers of heavy gun fire to treat the great many Chinese wounded soldiers and eventually died in the anti-fascist battlefield himself due to exhaustion and surgical contraction. “What kind of spirit is this”, as Mao Zedong asked in 1939 in his famous article In memory of Norman Bethune, “that makes a foreigner selflessly adopt the cause of the Chinese peoples liberation as his own?” “Bethune spirit,” he answered, “his utter devotion to others without any thought of self, was shown in his great sense of responsibility in his work and the great warm-heartedness towards all comrades and the people.”

It was forty years later, an American gynecologist, Jordan M. Phillips, came to China which has suffered a ten-year rampage of the “cultural revolution” and just started its new era of reform and opening up to the outside world. In this well-populated country of ancient civilization, he was surprised to find that not only the physicians unaware of the development of modern medicine in the outside world, the medical books they used to have were shunned as “capitalist poison”. His own conscience as a physician told him to do something to change such an intolerable condition. Since then he made the determination that his first task is to help modernize Chinese medical field. And this has been his thirty-year endeavor. He has shipped to China donations of seventy 20-ton pallets of medical books and instruments which were then given to thousands of Chinese hospitals, medical universities, colleges and libraries. For these donations, he and his wife Mary supported themselves for more than 80 trips over twenty years.

Jordan M. Phillips, who was born in 1923, became a gynecologist of great reputation in America quite early．His greatest contribution to medicine is his introduction of gynecological laparoscope from Europe. This advanced technology solved some difficult surgical problems of gynecology. It caused a great sensation and now considered a milestone in gynecology. He founded the American Association of the Gynecologic Laparoscopists in 1971 and remained its honorary president until his death.

In 1979, then newly retired Dr. Phillips and his wife Mary came to visit China for the first time right after attending an academic symposium in South Ko- rea. It was not Chinas Great Wall or Forbidden City that interested him most, but most importantly the conditions of medicine in China. While visiting hospitals and medical universities, he was surprised to find severe shortage of medical books and the poor medical technology lagged way behind current international standard. He learned from conversation with Chinese colleagues that this was a condition caused by the turmoil of the “cultural revolution”. In Guangzhou, he was invited to speak to some twenty doctors about his gynecological laparoscopy technology and practice. Quite unexpectedly, the news about him spread quickly by word of mouth. When he arrived at his next stop Hangzhou airport, local hospitals sent five limousines and twenty doctors as representatives to welcome him with great enthusiasm. More to Phillips surprise, over a thousand attended his lecture and the hall was jammed. Chinese colleagues enthusiasm and yearning for advanced science and technology deeply moved this American doctor. With a strong sense of responsibility, he made a determination to do something for Chinas medical field.

Later part of that year saw the Phillips couple came to China again with several boxes of medical books and new instruments. While giving these gifts to Chinese hospitals this American doctor performed several surgeries using these new instruments as a demonstration. He left deep impression on his Chinese colleagues and raised their strong desire for these advanced technology. But he discovered that for a country as populous and big as China several boxes of books and several surgeries are just like several drops of water in the ocean. The key task is to import the new medical technology to China and enable Chinese doctors to use them and even to improve them. Therefore he used his connections in the global gynecology network to organize experienced doctors from many countries to come to China one team after another to perform demonstration and training.

Phillips couples greatest contribution to China is perhaps their organization of large scale donation of medical books. Since 1981 they openly solicited in America medical books and journals for Chinese hospitals, medical institutions and libraries. In the beginning, they only timidly asked for “duplicate” and “slightly outdated” books. But very unexpectedly many books, journals and instruments came from all over the places without stop to jam their living room, garage and even bedrooms and they had to hire people to help handle these materials. They soon realized they needed to transform their “guerrilla” into a greater scale “battle” in order to adapt to the situation. They soon formed with their American colleagues the “American medical books for China committee”. They secured a storage of over ten thousand square feet, hired specialists for library indexing, categorizing and packaging, and registered the organization as a nonprofit. In an early survey in 1987, seven hundred libraries among one thousand two hundred American libraries participated in this donation project.

For such a volunteer endeavor, the Ministry of Health of China offered close coordination and support. The Chinese oceanic shipping company charged preferred price for shipping these books from America to Tianjin Harbour. Tianjin Health Bureau and Medical College jointly formed an organization to distribute the materials to hospitals, medial institutions and libraries all over China. This effort snowballed and more people from both sides got involved. To make connections, facilitate, inspect and serve better, the Phillips couple constantly flew across the Pacific Ocean and became frequent guests of the Chinese Ministry of Health, Tianjin Health Bureau and Medical College and Beijing Hotel. Although there is no profit to make and all expenses of travel were covered by themselves, they never grew weary and the more they did the happier they became. They soon expanded their American committee into an international committee to solicit books of advanced technology world wide. Year after year, the seed of friendship blossomed and came to fruition. The Chinese beneficiaries sent many letters to thank them. These are not just simple thank you letters. They sincerely tell them how these books were like bonfires in the snow to give doctors in the remote areas much needed blessings. Some of them invited the couple to visit the remote Chinese border regions.

One might ask out of curiosity what makes the Phillips couple do what they do. They do not seem to give a clear explanation themselves except that as their feelings towards the devoted Chinese colleagues become stronger and they are more and more willing to make contributions to the Chinese people. They are particularly moved by the noble example of one of their honorable medical colleagues, the famed gynecologist Lin Qiaozhi. When Lin died in 1983, Dr. Phillips volunteered himself in sending physicians in America and other countries thousands of letters calling for Chinese government to issue Lin Qiaozhi memorial stamp to permanently commemorate the great figure. In October of 1990 his effort came to reality when the stamp was issued with a conference called on by the Chinese Ministry of Health “Learning from Lin Qiaozhis Spirit of Unselfish Devotion”, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. Dr. Phillips gave a passionate invited speech at that conference.

To commemorate the ten-year anniversary of the “Medical Books for China”, the Chinese Ministry of Health held a celebration conference in Beijing on September 12, 1991. Personally chaired the conference, Minister Chen Minzhang highly praised Phillips couples spirit of internationalism and awarded Dr. Phillips the gold medal, Chinese Health Medal. Only two other foreign medical dignitaries won this medal of Chinese nobility since the founding of the Peoples Republic of China in 1949. But Phillips is the first American to win it. On that occasion this American physician compared the cause of book donation as “a little seed growing into a big tree and bearing fruit when it finds suitable soil, water and sunlight”. He said: “Let us all carefully grow this tree. People tell us: you have done so much hard work! We say: what we do is our great pleasure because the benefit of these medical books from various places cannot be measured!”

Unfortunately this American physician of great determination left us on July 29, 2008 at age 85. In the last ten years he had been gallantly fighting another war against cancer which now claimed his life. But the cause he founded, medical books for China, still continues.

This author is honored to have known this American physician, Dr. Jordan Phillips, Chinas Bethune for over twenty years. We became very close friends to share many things. Every time he came to China his first call was always to me: “We are here!” His clear and endearing voice of joy will always resonate in my ears. But his untimely passing means more than my personal loss of a true friend. It is an immeasurable loss of a great friend for the people of China. He will forever live in the heart of the Chinese people.