She is a fragrant “Chinese cliff-side plum flower”; a “snow lotus” growing in the mountains in every season; a “white angel” of her work unit. Her name is Mei Lian, and she was a student in the 2000 class of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps branch of the OUC.
Committed to Healing the Wounded and Rescuing the Dying
Ba’erluke Mountain is a border area, with poor roads and a lack of medical services. Mei Lian spent her first 20 years there, and was determined to become a doctor. For over 20 years she has been a health-care worker.
Being a rural doctor is a challenge, since broad proficiency is required: internal medicine, surgery, gynaecology, pediatrics, and so on. Often she felt overwhelmed by the problems she faced, and this made her decide to pursue further education.
In the autumn of 2000, Mei Lian came to the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps branch of the OUC to study clinical medicine, learning more about areas including anatomy, biochemistry, and molecular biology. These systematic studies considerably enhanced both her theoretical level and practical ability.
As a result, the number and kinds of diseases she is able to treat has grown, and she has been named a "National Excellent Grassroots Village Doctor" and "National Model Worker", and received honours such as a National "May Day" Labour Medal and "Norman Bethune Medal". To her all this, however, "only belongs to the past. Saving and protecting life is my duty as a doctor, and my long-held dream."
A Dedicated and Selfless CPC Member
On 1st July 2021, Mei Lian, as a "National Outstanding Communist Party Member", was invited to Tian’anmen Square to attend a celebration of the 100th anniversary of the founding of the CPC. She said, "I am an ordinary Party member, passionate about medicine, and with affection for the people of Ba’erluke Mountain."
This has inspired her to spend over 30 years in the region despite its treacherous weather and terrain, treating nearly 100,000 patients, and even paying tens of thousands of RMB out-of-pocket for their medical expenses. She has been injured, and even come close to losing her life, but has no regrets, and has never backed down. To the herdsmen she is the “snow-lotus flower” of the mountain, a white angel on horseback.
A Model of Ethnic Unity
On Ba’erluke Mountain, Mei Lian is not only a model doctor, but also an example of national unity and safe borders.
The Kazakh herdsmen who mainly populate the mountains speak diverse languages, which she studies in her spare time, making her able to communicate to them about hygiene, infection, and other medical issues.
Her increasing fluency in Kazakh has not only made communication and treatment easier, but also enabled her to write an ode to ethnic unity.
She is now the director of the family-planning centre of a divisional health committee of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps. Her workload is heavier than before, but she still finds time to visit the workers and herders on the mountain. She says, "Ba’erluke Mountain is where I am really needed, and I can only repay the esteem and trust of the people there by working twice as hard!"
By OUC News Network