The Gift of Ah Marr

The Gift of Ah Marr By Rose L. Tse and Gloria Bond As far back as she could remember, Dr. Rose L. Tse was driven by a burning desire to study in America, but this dream appeared to be impossible, since she was a daughter of a poorly paid professor in Shanghai, who could not afford to send her away. In 1949 as the political scene grew bleak and the communists encroached Shanghai, her childhood dream appeared to be impossible. However, with perseverance, she finally reached America and attended Mt. Holyoke College in Massachusetts, where she majored in chemistry. It took Rose just eight months to earn her master's degree at Mt. Holyoke, when normally, it takes students two years. Soon thereafter, she headed for Yale University to pursue further studies in a PhD program. Within a year-a-half, she solved a classic problem that had baffled scientists for thirty-six years, and because she was required to remain at Yale for three years before being allowed to receive a PhD, she was given a second research topic to solve. A few years later, Rose attended The Medical College of Pennsylvania, a woman's institution, and this was followed by intern and residency training at the prestigious Philadelphia General Hospital. Soon after she entered the field of medicine, she experienced a rapid climb in academia and eventually served as professor at the University of Pennsylvania. Among her success, Rose never forgot her loyalty to the family that she had left behind in China, and as news from home reached her, she became distressed as she heard how her family, as intellectuals, were persecuted in a Cultural Revolution. After Nixon's visit to China in 1972, and particularly after two Nobel Prize Chinese scholars were allowed to visit their families in Shanghai and Beijing, Rose, herself, obtained permission to return to China twice to visit her family whom she had not seen for 23 years. However, her two visits disturbed her, for she saw how her family was denied many freedoms that she often took for granted. She was also amazed at how her family continued their daily prayers together, in a society that had made the public worship of God unlawful. And soon, the happy, secure world that she so much enjoyed in America came to an end, for she chose to give it up for the people whom she loved the most