Sight, film about Chinese-American Dr Ming Wang, who helps blind people see again, tells a story of ‘freedom and faith’
- Dr Ming Wang, a Chinese American who pioneered the amniotic membrane contact lens to help blind people see, is not widely known, but Sight may change that
- As the movie’s executive producer, Wang talks about giving Asians ‘authentic representation’ and the role Christianity played in enabling him to help millions
When Dr Ming Wang arrived in the United States in 1982 at 21 years old, he had nothing but US$50 and a Chinese-to-English translation book.
He had just survived the violent Cultural Revolution in China – and the loss of a dear friend – during which the government had shut down most of the universities in the country.
We see this and much more in flashbacks throughout the movie Sight, which is based on Wang’s autobiography From Darkness to Sight and is now in cinemas.
In it, Wang (played by Terry Chen) ends up earning medical doctorates from Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (graduating magna cum laude from the latter), while also earning a PhD in laser physics from the University of Maryland.
He discovers a new way to potentially help blind people see – using an amniotic membrane contact lens – as he and his medical partner Dr Misha Bartnovsky (played by Greg Kinnear) embark on a mission to help orphans regain their sight.
