Here is the
story of Wu Xingchun (1898-1979) who, with help of Samuel Pollard, became
the first medical doctor of the ethnic Miao group and who, like his benefactor,
served the ethnic Miaos with his heart and soul.
Wu Xingchun
was a shepherd boy when, at ten, he was allowed to go to the school set up
by Samuel Pollard at Shimenkan Village. Before that, the boy had no given
name, and had received no education at all. Thanks to Pollard, he was able
to go to school, where he received the name "Xingchun," which means "pure
character."
In 1921, six
years after Samuel Pollard died, Wu Xingchun and another ethnic Miao youth
left for Chengdu, capital of Sichuan Province, to be educated in modern medicine.
Samuel Pollard had made a rule in 1914 that every year, three ethnic Miao
students were to be sent to a first-class high school in Chengdu to further
their eduction. As he wrote in his diary, he realized that the neglect of
ethnic Miaos could best be broken by choosing a few promising lucky students
to receive a better eduction.
