Deepen the Heart of Your Story by Embracing Your Heritage and Culture

By Songju Ma Daemicke

I grew up in China. Every Chinese mom is basically a Chinese medicine practitioner at heart. I remember vividly that my mom used smashed dandelions on my cheeks when I had the mumps. The cold mush soothed my inflamed neck and chin and the dandelion’s natural anti-inflammation properties helped me fight the virus and recover.

I remain a strong believer in Chinese traditional medicine. Here is a picture of a night lily I grew on the night it was blooming. (This mysterious flower only blooms in the nighttime and the bloom only lasts for a few hours.)

By the second day, the flowers will go into my soup. It has detoxifying properties, strengthens one’s lungs, helps one’s immune system, and even benefits one’s skin with its rich collagen. The flower is also both beautiful and yummy!

When Tu Youyou received the Nobel Prize in 2015 for the discovery of Artemisinin, which has saved millions of lives and made her the first Chinese woman to have ever been awarded this honor, I knew that I had to tell her story.

I wanted to tell not only Tu Youyou’s personal story, but also share Chinese culture and precisely, Chinese traditional medicine. Tu Youyou cherished traditional Chinese medical wisdom and embraced its possible use in the modern age. At the heart of my book, TU YOUYOU'S DISCOVERY: FINDING A CURE FOR MALARIA, is the idea of embracing and learning from one’s cultural heritage.

My story begins with Tu Youyou getting very sick with TB at a young age. While antibiotics saved her life, her mother’s herb soups helped slowly nurse her back to full strength. Youyou witnesses the power of both modern and traditional medicine. Inspired, she sets her heart and life goals in science, deciding to study medicine to help save lives.

As the story progresses, Tu Youyou is assigned to head an important government project, one specifically designated to find a cure for malaria to help Vietnam soldiers during the Vietnam War. The first things she does are to study many traditional Chinese medicine books and then travel to visit Chinese medicine practitioners and malaria patients. She hears popular folk sayings recommending a qinghao/sweet wormwood remedy.

Embracing her heritage and learning from her ancestors leads Tu Youyou to an “a-ha moment”. When her experiments fail again and again, she turns to an ancient Chinese remedy book, A HANDBOOK OF PRESCRIPTIONS FOR EMERGENCIES, for inspiration. The book was written by Ge Hong, a pharmacist, 1700 years before. Youyou rereads the 15 Chinese characters specifically describing the ‘Qinghao remedy.'

青蒿一握, 以水二升渍, 绞取汁, 尽服之。

“A handful of Qinghao immersed in two liters of water, wring out the juice and drink it all.”

She ruminates over each word in her mind and realizes that the temperature used in the preparation could be the key!

The book ends with Youyou being awarded the Nobel Prize in Science. Basking in the glory of this tremendous honor, Youyou graciously credits Chinese medicine for her amazing achievement. “Artemisinin (is) a gift from traditional Chinese medicine to the world.”

This is the heart of her work and also this book: Embrace your cultural heritage.

My hope is that no matter what background you may come from and whatever you might do with and in your life, value, embrace and learn from your heritage and culture. This will fill your life with deeper meaning and heart, and give your stories an extra set of wings to fly further.

Now it’s your turn. Give it a try:

1) What subjects/foods/traditions/holidays/animals/plants/events hold special meaning to you? Research them and find special persons or amazing subjects. Does the subject share some cultural heritage with you? Think about how you can make your story more personal and unique by utilizing or incorporating these cultural elements into your text, back matter, even your pitch. Write from your personal connection to the subject.

2) Research and brainstorm your own personal family heritage. Where did your parents or grandparents grow up? Have you ever visited that place? What is your most memorable moment/thing? Write that.

3) What is a favorite or interesting story that you heard from your grandparents? Can you reinvent/retell that story? The concept of my debut book, A CASE OF SENSE, came from a folktale I was told by my grandpa. (This book is one of 176 recently banned in Duval, Florida. )

4) Who were your heroes, imaginary or real, when you were little girl/boy? Perhaps you can tell one of their stories. My second book, CAO CHONG WEIGHS AN ELEPHANT, was inspired in this way.

Meet the Author: 

Songju Ma Daemicke, a former software engineer, is an award-winning children’s book author. Her latest book, TU YOUYOU'S DISCOVERY - FINDING A CURE FOR MALARIA, is a finalist for the 2023 SB&F Prize for Excellence in Science Books. Songju’s picture book, CAO CHONG WEIGHS AN ELEPHANT, was a Best STEM book, the Winner of 2018 CALA Best Juvenile Literature, an Outstanding Science Trade book, a Notable-Social-Studies book, and a Mathical Honor Book. Her next book, OUR WORLD: CHINA, is a board book, coming out from Barefoot Books in the Fall of 2023. Learn more at songjumadaemicke.com.