Interview of Duke University Health system Chancellor Dr. Dzau(4)

2007-02-14 17:07:18 Xing Zong[ Big Normal Small ]

　　D: I spend some time speaking to students, especially Asian Americans, or Chinese Americans, medical students or young faculty. They always ask me this question. I think there are two types of Asian Americans. One is like me, who is an immigrant, I came here for study. For me, it is an adjustment of culture. The second group is the second generation of immigrant families. Families tell them you must be traditional Chinese, you must marry Chinese.

　　I guess the challenge for all Chinese is very big. I can remember many stories of the culture difference. The first time when I was working in a research lab, that’s a summer time job, people have coffee breaks. They were socializing, talking. But I was staying in lab and waiting for them to ask me to join. For Americans, you just walk out and join. But I didn’t, I stay inside, waited and waited. So I felt very left out. What do you think my friends out there were thinking? Because they don’t understand our culture, they say, this guy is very shy, or he is not so sociable, so my feeling is that if you want to be successful in any country, you have to understand the customs of that country. You have to be able to let people recognize your strength, your values and your contributions. So we have a reason to step to and adopt different cultures and different values.

　　So I always told the students, the way you look at it is this, you bring the best of your background, your legacy, and your heritage, and you adapt to the new areas, combine these two, that’s how you became successful. People talk about glass ceilings, you can say one possible glass ceiling is discrimination, the other possible glass ceilings is the possibility to name someone as the chancellor. Is the decision to say, can he really lead our group because he understand our problems? Can he discuss this issue? We obviously have to function in such a way that people are going to feel you as their leader, and feel you as the person who is going to understand these issues. So I think it goes both ways, that’s point I am making. Glass ceilings are easy to break. If people here would like to go to China, they also need to adapt to the Chinese environment in order to be successful. You have to bring the strength of your background, combine both of them. That’s what I am talking about.

　　Z: Last question. Duke now is very ambitious to have global outreach, especially in collaboration with China. What is your blue print or strategic plan?

　　D: This is very important. I would like to find ways to have successful collaborations. We have signed letters of intent to Peking University. I hope we can develop a collaboration similar to Singapore. I am really interested in the long lasting relationship which goes to core of academics, and maybe patient care as well. How can we learn from each other? How can we develop something what we each have? A lot of people have the misconception that globalization is Americanization, that’s wrong. Globalization is multidirectional: we learn from China, China learns from us. I think by working together, we will do a lot of learning. That’s why I strongly believe global health is not only for America. There is a better place to learn about disease, disparities, learn economics inequalities, how people solve the problems. It is important for our young people to learn these things. So they can be a better person. So it is both directions.

　　Z: Dr. Dzau, many thanks for sharing these insightful opinions with me!

　　D: My pleasure. Good luck!