Dedicated to the 125th Anniversary of the Yale-in-China Association
Xuejun Li, Professor of Neurosurgery
Vice Dean of Xiangya School of Medicine, Central South University
When I think of the Yale-China Association, I think of people.
I think of the generations of Chinese and American colleagues who have worked together, learned from one another, and built friendships that have lasted far beyond their own lifetimes. For me, the meaning of Yale-China has become especially personal through three photographs taken over nearly a decade.
Dr. Xuejun Li with Mrs. Maude Pettus during the centennial celebration of Xiangya Hospital, Changsha, October 2014
In 2014, Xiangya celebrated its 100th anniversary. Among the distinguished guests who returned to Changsha was Mrs. Maude Pettus, who was 100 years old at the time.
More than seven decades earlier, Maude and her husband, Dr. Winston Pettus, had served at Xiangya during the difficult years of World War II. Winston was a surgeon and Maude a nurse. Together with their Chinese colleagues, they cared for patients through the dangers and uncertainties of wartime. Winston lost his life in 1945 while serving Xiangya, and I could sense how deeply those years and memories still stayed with Maude.
I had the privilege of meeting her during the centennial celebration. We took a photograph together at Xifu Lou（西湖楼）.
What stays with me is not simply that she was 100 years old, but how vividly she remembered Xiangya. To her, it was not a distant chapter in history. It was a place she had loved deeply, and a place that had remained an important part of her life.
Meeting her made history feel very close and very human.
Dr. Xuejun Li attending the memorial service for Mrs. Maude Pettus in the United States,June 2017
Three years later, when Maude passed away, I traveled to the United States to attend her memorial service.
Being there with her family and friends brought back the memory of our meeting in Changsha. Although I had known Maude only briefly, I felt connected to a much longer story—one that had begun at Xiangya decades before and had continued through generations of people connected by Yale-China.
Her passing reminded me that the Yale-China relationship is sustained not only by institutions and programs, but by people who remember one another and continue to care.
Dr. Xuejun Li with Ann, daughter of Mrs. Maude Pettus, at the unveiling of the bronze bust of Dr. Yan Fuqing at Yale, October 2023
In 2023, this story came full circle in an unexpected way.
I returned to Yale for the unveiling of a bronze bust of Dr. Yan Fuqing at the Cushing/Whitney Medical Library. Dr. Yan, the first Asian to receive a medical degree from Yale School of Medicine, returned to China after graduating in 1909 and became the founding dean of the Hsiang-ya Medical College in 1914. His life represents one of the earliest and most enduring links between Yale and Xiangya.
At Yale, I had the opportunity to meet Maude’s daughter, Ann. We took a photograph together.
Standing beside her, I immediately thought of the photograph I had taken with her mother nine years earlier in Changsha.
One photograph was in China. Another was in the United States. The third was at Yale.
Together, they tell a story that is much larger than any one of us.
The history of Yale-China is a history of people who crossed oceans, entered one another's communities, served others, and built relationships that survived distance and time. The Pettuses, Dr. Yan Fuqing, and generations of Chinese and American colleagues all became part of this remarkable human connection.
Looking back at these three photographs, I am struck by how much can be carried in a single image.
A photograph captures only a moment.
But sometimes, a photograph can connect generations.
For me, these three photographs represent the enduring spirit of Yale-China: a friendship that began generations ago, continues through the people of today, and becomes a bridge to the generations yet to come.
As Yale-China celebrates its 125th anniversary, I feel fortunate to have witnessed a small part of this remarkable history—from Xiangya to Yale, from Maude to her daughter, and from one generation to the next.