5-22-24 *INTERVIEW* Dr Ming Wang and His Remarkable Life is the Subject of the New Movie Sight

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
I'm ross appreciate your time, appreciateyour company. Some of you may recall
a movie that was just a bigsurprise hit. I want to say it
was last year, although I guessit's possible it was two years ago called
called Sound of Freedom, and itwas from an independent movie studio called Angel
Studios, which I think they're inUtah of Memory Serves. In any case,

(00:22):
they have a new movie that's comingout on Friday, and it's called
Site s I G h T.And it is based on the true story
of the life of my next guest, doctor Ming Wang, who joins us
right now. Doc, thanks somuch for joining us. I'm really looking

(00:44):
forward to this conversation. Thanks forbeing here. Thank you. You pronounced
my last incorrected it Wong? That'sexactly right, yes, correct, All
right? Good. Uh. I'vebeen to China, so I'm not sure
I would go back real soon.But anyway, and so I would also

(01:06):
note because I want to talk beforewe talk about, you know, the
incredible work that you've done restoring Siteto blind people and what you've done here
in the US. When I wasin college in the eighties, I studied
Chinese politics, right, so youknow, going to even before Chairman mal
but now and then all those guysafter that, and that was no easy

(01:30):
place to live or grow up orescape from. And could you just tell
us a little bit about your earlylife? Sure? Sure, ros.
In the nineteen sixties, from nineteensixty six to seventy six, a crazy
thing happened there is called cultural revolutions, and the government shut down all universities

(01:53):
and colleges of an entire nation ofChina, and the fourthfully deported every single
high school graduate to some of thepost part of the country and condemn each
one of us a lifetime of povertyand hollybor And it's was a cultural revolution
over ten years. By shutting downall universities and colleges of in Thai China

(02:14):
for their ten years from sixty sixto seventy six, they sent away to
labor camp twenty million high school graduatesfor life. And I called that.
In nineteen seventy four, I wasfourteen and I finished my junior high and
I was not allowed to go tosenior high because I wasn't we sent away
to labor camp right after that,so I had to drop out of school

(02:36):
and I had to play a Chineseviolin called awful and learning dance because if
I could do that, I magnificettingto the government saw in dance troupe.
Therefore, the avoiding sent away tolabor camp the stead of stating faith,
Wow, do you have siblings?Yes, I have a younger brother who
was eight years younger, and hecalled a tail end of cultural revolution,

(03:00):
so and he It was depicted inthe film site also to be released Friday,
the More day weekend, May twentyfourth, and so I thought against
that, you know, the hopefor any future for young at age fourteen.
But then I got lucky because nineteenseventy six the Cultural Revolution ended and

(03:21):
they China woke up realizing what thetragey mistake it has made by having shut
down all universities and colleges for theirten years and sent away twenty million young
people to you know, poor partof the China. So they stopped the
contribution, reopened all the colleges,and I had to fight for an opportunity
to you know, getting back intohigh school, and with my parents' help,

(03:46):
I eventually got into University Science andTechnology of China to study lays of
physics. In nineteen eighty two withfifty dollars followed from a visiting American professor
with a Chinese English canary. Nona in this country. Could hardly speak
English, even though I was penniless, but I was happy. Why I

(04:09):
was free? How how did youget here? How did you get permission
to leave China? And who sponsoredyou and supported you when you got here?
Was it that professor to tell usabout that move? Yes, there
was a professor. I was incollege in China and heard this American professor.

(04:30):
His name is James McNasty, whowas going to visit our college.
So I got my little plan totry to come to America. I want
to come to a land of opportunityand freedom. So I studied English real
hard that night before the next day. I tried to impress him by asking
a question, but my English wasso poor that he had no idea what

(04:53):
I was asking. So he askedme to explain or something, But I
have no idea what he was saying, so all I could do was keep
on repeating this same question. Atthe end it difficot what I was asking,
but he was not increased by myEnglish or lack of But really he
was impressed by my persistence. Sothat's how he helped me, and I
was able to come to responsor tome, and I came to America as

(05:15):
a student. You know, Sideis a movie about it. You know,
I take care of folks with visionproblems every day as an ophthalmologist today.
People who appreciate side the most arethose used to be blind. People
who appreciate freedom the most are thosewho used to not have freedom. So

(05:36):
Side is a movie about story ofan immigrant who used to not have freedom,
and really send a message to Americatoday that says, you know,
we're so blessed to live in America, a country's freedom. The immigrants and
the refugees, some of them puttheir lives on the line so they can

(05:56):
get to the other side, meaningto have a chance to come to live
in a Mariica. We really wereliving here. We really should appreciate so
much more the wonderful country we haveand look to more positive side of our
country rather than keep on complaining aboutthe negative and be more willing to overcome
more polarization and fund the common groundto build America. I couldn't agree with

(06:19):
you more. And actually I havea few good friends who live in the
United States now who got out ofcommunist China, and they they're the most
patriotic Americans I know, for thereasons that you said. And I do
think I don't want to drift toofar off into politics here, doc,

(06:41):
but I do think that there area lot of Americans who just take this
all for granted and don't do nearlyenough to protect the freedoms that they have,
and they're willing to let it getnibbled away at the edges. And
and you know Ben Franklin's thing aboutthose who will sacrifice essential liberty for temporary
security will have neither. We we'redoing way too much of that. And

(07:03):
so I really appreciate what you said. So yeah, for those just joining,
we're talking with doctor Ming Wong andhis life is the subject of a
new movie from Angel Studios called Sites I G h T. And it'll
be in theaters beginning this Friday forMemorial Day weekend. You want to go

(07:24):
see an uplifting story, something youcan you can take your kids and grandkids
too, and and and not justbe entertained, but like, wow,
I'm doing something. I'm really doingsomething here. They're really learning something here
go see site. So doc,you you went to what MI T undergrad
or did you do your PhD atMI T or what was the education?

(07:47):
Yeah? Afterking to America, Ifirst enrote in a PhD program at the
University of Maryland and finish my PhDin las of physics and finished post off
and MIT and then after gotten myuh, you know, doctor degree in
laser physics. As such, Idecided to be a laser eye surgeon.
So I went on to get mysecond doctor degree, this time an MD

(08:11):
from a joint program from Harvard anMIT. And because I want to be
unique laser eye surgeon who are trainedon both the medicine and technology. And
side is a movie about freedom whichwe talked about about faith in America is
the country that I find Christian faith, but also it's about family. Have

(08:35):
you seen this movie God's Not Deadwhich was about ten years ago, a
wonderful Christian film. And in thatmovie, there's a cute little Chinese student
who went from being an atheist toa believer. In that movie, Gud's
Not There and that was inspired bymy life story. That Chinese student a
character is that that's also you yeahwow? And yeah, and so side

(08:58):
is about after I became a smogist, I wanted to devote myself to help
those who need the most help.Is a answer to God's according to me,
what I should do for Christ.So I decided to build a foundation
to help blind often children, folkswho need the most help. And in
the process, the more you talkabout I was trying to help a find

(09:20):
and have your Indian child who hadintentionally blinded people who pour self firic acids
into her, trying to make ablind often child who can you know,
thing on the street can get moremoney from begging tourists. So I was
trying to really work out trying tohelp the job. That's our foundations work,
you know, from helping blind offenchildren from around the world. And

(09:43):
in the process I found the onlyway to stop her eye scarring, restoring
eyesight is to do research on fetusunbund child. This unbund child does not
scar, and after birth we allscar. But how can you do research?
How could you do research on unbundchild without hurting a life? Right,
So there's a conundrum, and that'sa conflict between science and faith.

(10:05):
Fortunately, I prayed and asked Christis a common ground between science and faith.
And in one of the places thatI felt that guy would give me
an idea, and so I started, uh asking, uh, maybe maybe
the child can hear without scar hasto do with the amniotic membrane that's surrounding
unborn child. That that's what wemean. The membranes give the unbone child

(10:28):
ability here without scar. So Igot lots of percents donated to me by
mothers after giving birth to children.You know the percentage do not Anyway,
they starting research and eventually I developedthe amniotic membrane contactlants. So when I
put this m niotic membrane contactrance ontoinjured eyes, indeed, miracle happened.
The scars reduced, science restored.So then I decided, you know,

(10:52):
I didn't really invent a number incontactrance God, because I do not invent
the placenta, I do not inventthe am at the membrane. So I
decided to donate the technology to theworld. I put the pattern online and
went around the world about twenty years, about fifty some countries, taught over
ten thousand. Ay doctors help touse the technology today and they at member

(11:16):
in contact lens is a five billiondollar industry worldwide. Doctors from nearly every
nations are using this technology and millionsof patients as I have restored. And
you know, I'm friends that allI mean, You're you're stupid. You
didn't make any money around. Noone want stupid because I'm for two reasons.
One is I'm asking God's calling todevelop technology, and I did not

(11:37):
really invent them at contact lens quiteguarded because I did not invent the percenter
or any membrane. Second, asimmigrant who came to this country with nothing,
I'm so grateful to America and Iwant to do what I can,
my little bit to help people andhelp rebuild America to what it was remarkable,

(12:01):
remarkable folks. In The movie Siteopens on Friday in theaters for Memorial
Day. It stars Greg kinnear andTerry Chen And and this is I'm really
looking forward to seeing this. Letme let me just switch gears with you.
Actually, no one one more medicalquestion, and then I want to
switch gears with you. What whatare the primary causes of blindness for which

(12:28):
your treatment is applicable? Great question? In sir war countries, in developing
countries, not as much as inthe United States. In Sir War Country,
which is two thirds of the world. One of the leading causes of
blindness is corneal scarring due to injury, trauma and mal nutrition, and that's

(12:50):
a big problem. That's the leadingcourse of blindness and for the longest time
we have no treatments until the researchlike this came along and with my development
of anniotic number in Contactrance, whichhave begun to restore eyesight in some of
these patients. With this technology.We have help patients from over forty states

(13:11):
in America or fifty five countries worldwide, and all the kids you know,
surgeries are donated, and so it'sreally addressing a major problem of blindness in
the developing countries. The blindness dueto injury, trauma and malnutrition. Got
it, okay, So it's thisis dealing with a problem essentially on the

(13:33):
front of the eye, on thelens of the eye, and not like
an optic nerve or retinal problem righton the front part of the eye of
conia. I'm a conm Cornia specialistand I other than that, I do
normal related vision surgery to correct nearcided fast that a stigmism perp you will
be the reading classes need as weget older. Also came backs, Wow,

(13:56):
I might have to get in touchwith you at some point to come
see you from my eyes, Butwell we'll talk about that later. So
all right, got just a coupleof minutes left. Tell me a little
bit, separate from the medicine andyour mission. What is it? What
was it actually like to have amovie made about your life? Did you
hang out with the act two movies? Really? Did you hang out with
the actors? What did they wantto know? What was the whole experience

(14:20):
and process like for you? InGo's not that movie ten years ago,
I just have a brush with it, so to speak. Under only one
character in that movie, a Chinesestealing character who went from atheist to believe
that was me in that movie.That's not there with this movie, it's
just about based on my autobiography.From Darkness to Sign is a tremendous honor

(14:41):
and the humble experience to see worldcuss actors such as Katnier, Terry Chang,
with producer David Fisher, Dern Mormon, and also the director Andrew Hyatt,
the world cust artists who dedicate theirlives to the art and spend so
much time working so hard with themovie on the big silver screen. But
not only it's humble expense, butalso it's such an excitement because I treasured

(15:05):
this opportunity to send a message toAmerica and unprecedentally polarized America, a country
that's so fixated on differences rather appreciatingwhat we have in common, so fixed
it on deficiency in America rather andthen celebrate and preserve what is the best
for America. I want to usemy story as an immigrant who used to
not have freedom to tell America,you know what, we live in a

(15:28):
wonderful country that's appreciate America by beingmore willing to work together to help America.
Doctor Minwan, his life story isthe subject of the new movie site
Sight. It'll be in theaters beginningthis Friday for Memorial Day. I mean
folks that I think I have slightlyslightly more appreciation than the average person.

(15:52):
Wasn't in China at the time,because I studied China a lot. The
idea of a kid coming out ofChairman MOUs China and ending up with you
know Mi. I T Harvard md, pH d. Curing blindness for
more than fifty thousand orphaned kids inmore than fifty five countries. It's an
unbelievable story. Go see the movieyou know, feel Good Experience of the

(16:17):
Summer Dot. Just thank you andand and well I get. I don't
know a better word than congratulations onjust a remarkable life that you have led.
I want to thank you Ross forthe honor to be on your Ross
Kiminsky Show. Also appreciate your stepForth for the film about freedom, faith

(16:38):
and family. Thanks Doc, lookforward to talking to you again in the future.