---
title: "Restoring ‘Sight,’ One Child at a Time"
date: 2024-05-24T09:27:00-04:00
author: University of Maryland
canonical_url: "https://today.umd.edu/restoring-sight-one-child-at-a-time"
section: Articles
---
# Restoring ‘Sight,’ One Child at a Time

*May 24, 2024* — by [Karen Shih ’09](/author/karen-shih)


> New Movie Traces Alum’s Journey From Impoverished Immigrant to Renowned Eye Surgeon Who Treats Blinded Orphan

*Sight Stillhero 1920x1080 — Actor Terry Chen (left) plays eye surgeon Ming Wang Ph.D. '86 in a film opening nationwide Friday that co-stars Greg Kinnear (right). As a child growing up in Cultural Revolution-era China (photo at bottom), Ming studied dance and music in a bid by his parents to spare him being sent to rural labor camps, and later emigrated to the United States to begin his studies at UMD.*

As a teenager in China during the Cultural Revolution, Ming Wang Ph.D. ’86 faced a bleak future. The government had shut down all colleges and universities. Twenty million youths like him were being sent to rural labor camps. To try to save him from that fate, his parents pushed him to learn Chinese dance and musical instruments, hoping he could instead join a government dance troupe.

Then Communist leader Mao Zedong died in 1976, ending the draconian measures. Schools reopened in time for Wang to earn his undergraduate degree and set off for the United States, where he would go on to become an ophthalmologist known for innovations in LASIK and cataract surgeries.


*Ming Wang headshot — Ming Wang Ph.D. '86*


*boy learning to dance*




**Topics:** [People](https://today.umd.edu/tags/people)


**Tags:** [Alumni](https://today.umd.edu/topic/alumni)


**Units:** [College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences](https://today.umd.edu/topic/college-computer-mathematical-and-natural-sciences)