Ｉｎ　Ｍｅｍｏｒｙ　ｏｆ　Ｊｏｒｄａｎ　Ｍ．　Ｐｈｉｌｌｉｐｓ.docVIP

Ｉｎ　Ｍｅｍｏｒｙ　ｏｆ　Ｊｏｒｄａｎ　Ｍ．　Ｐｈｉｌｌｉｐｓ 　　The greatest contribution 　　of the Phillips couple to 　　China may be their 　　organization of massive 　　donations of medical books. 　　 　　IN the vocabulary of the Chinese, “Bethune” is the ultimate synonym for the noble figure.Norman Bethune’s reputation was made in the anti-Japanese war period when the Canadian physician trudged the frontiers under heavy gunfire to treat the great many Chinese wounded. Adding virtual martyrdom to his heroic qualities, Bethune eventually died in the anti-fascist battlefield, from exhaustion and complications contracted from surgery. “What kind of spirit is this,” asked Mao Zedong in his famous 1939 article “In memory of Norman Bethune,” “that makes a foreigner selflessly adopt the cause of the Chinese people’s liberation as his own?” “Bethune spirit,” he answered, “is utter devotion to others without any thought of self. It was shown in his great sense of responsibility to his work, and his great warm-heartedness towards all comrades, towards all people. ” 　　 　　Forty years later, an American gynecologist, Jordan M. Phillips, came to a struggling China ?C one recovering from the ten-year rampage known as the “cultural revolution” but one which had just started its new era of reform and opening-up. He knew of China’s ancient civilization and her enormous population but was surprised to find physicians unaware of the development of modern medicine, and that the medical books once available had been shunned as “capitalist poison.” His own conscience as a physician nagged him to do something to sweep away this intolerable darkness. Phillips decided his primary task was to help modernize Chinese medical practice. That became a 30-year endeavor. He organized shipments to China:seventy 20-ton pallets of donated medical books, and surgical instruments which were then distributed to thousands of Chinese hospitals, medical universities, colleges and libraries. To ensure these donations made it, he and h