ABSTRACT
This chapter acts as a useful source of knowledge for aspiring Asian female graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and existing faculty as it helps them understand that it is great to have grown up with good virtues such as diligence, respect, moderation, and modesty. It bridges the gaps through excerpts from a Chinese American medical professor’s narrative of her journey from being a Chinese student in China to a Chinese American professor in the United States. The chapter includes how the Confucian theory of modesty and moderation was useful in preparing Mei, the participant, to be an extremely successful student and person in China, but became a hindrance to quick success in American society. Unlike her previous experience in China, Mei found that to succeed in the United States she needed to passionately and independently pursue a field of study with creativity and criticalness as well as self-confidence and even self-promotion as a graduate student, postdoctoral fellow, and as a professor.
