“There Is Always a Teacher Among Them”: Reflections From an American Medical Student on Time Spent With Medical Providers in the United States, China, and Vietnam

There is a famous Chinese saying by Confucius that goes “With three men walking, there is always a teacher among them.” In this narrative essay, I recount the story of how curiosity led me to find lessons about medicine from research on complementary and alternative medicine and medical service experiences in the “three men walking” of China, Vietnam, and the United States. As we visit the many teachers I had along the way, we will draw out various lessons from each experience and reflect on the value in experiencing cross-cultural medicine as a medical provider-in-training, with the hope that it will inspire other aspiring healers to cultivate their own curiosity. Travel with me from a bench outside a traditional Chinese medicine clinic in Beijing to orphanages in Vietnam and unearth what the “three men walking” of the United States, China, and Vietnam have to teach us.