A Mother's Memoir of China, Israel, and America
A Dragon in the Desert
Published in Chinese as 《自由的萨布拉》 English translation in preparation
About the Book
About the Book
My daughter was born in the Year of the Dragon. In China, the dragon is not a monster to be slain. It is power itself — fierce, tireless, made of fire, the creature that fights and wins. In China, she was raised to be obedient.
Then I took her to the desert.
She was ten. Israel was heat and stone and a language she could not yet read. There she was expected to argue, to question, to become a sabra — rough outside, sweet within. The dragon woke in the desert. But it was in America that it found its work. She is an emergency medicine physician now, saving lives every day in rooms where there is no time to be still.
This memoir is my account, as her mother and a physician-scientist, of what that transformation cost and gave us both.
The dragon, it turned out, was always there. China had taught her to keep it still. Jewish culture taught her to wrestle. America taught her where to aim it.
Sample Passage
Why I write
I trained as a physician in China. I earned my PhD at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel. I have spent years in cancer and TB/HIV research in the United States, and years investing in biotech companies built by scientists.
Medicine taught me to help. Science taught me to test my assumptions. Investing taught me how much of life is decided under resources and uncertainty.
But none of that is why I wrote this book. I wrote it because I am a mother, and because watching a child become herself under vastly different cultures is the most astonishing thing I have ever witnessed — and the thing I understood least.
The Author
About the Author
Jane Bao (Jing Bao) is a physician-scientist, biotech investor, professor, and the author of A Dragon in the Desert: A Mother's Memoir of China, Israel, and America, published in Shanghai in Chinese as 《自由的萨布拉》. The English edition is in preparation.
I grew up in China and practiced medicine there before moving to Israel, where I spent six years at the Weizmann Institute of Science and 16 years living and working. I also published my second memoir, My 2000 Days in Israel (English version is in progress). I now live in the United States, where I teach, advise, and write.
I am interested in the places where science runs out — family, identity, belonging, love across cultures — and in what people do there.
Other Works
Also by the Author
《 自 由 的 萨 布 拉 》/ A Dragon in the Desert
《我在以色列的2000天》 / My 2000 Days in Israel
MD, China · PhD, Weizmann Institute of Science · cancer and TB/HIV research and biotech investing, United States
Get in Touch
Rights & Publishing Enquiries
For rights, translation, adaptation, or publishing enquiries, please use the form below or email directly at jingbao07@gmail.com.
jingbao07@gmail.com