March 23, 2007
ONE NIGHT ONLY
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Dr. Gao at Housing Works
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Dr. Gao Yaojie’s whirlwind tour of the Northeastern U.S. continued this week, as she returned to New York for a speaking engagement at Columbia University on Tuesday evening where she discussed the AIDS epidemic in China with students, faculty, activists and members of the community.
Dr. Gao, an 80-year-old AIDS activist, educator, and gynecologist, came to the U.S. earlier this month to accept a leadership award in Washington, D.C., from Vital Voices Global Partnership. Before attending that glam event, she dropped by Housing Works to take a tour of the Keith D. Cylar House and Bookstore Cafe.
Back in New York for her Columbia gig, Dr. Gao was interviewed by Andrew J. Nathan, Ph.D., chair of the university’s political science department. Before an audience of 100, she talked about the changes in China since she exposed a blood-selling operation in the mid-’90s that caused thousands of people to get HIV. Dr. Gao told the audience that the blood-selling industry didn’t halt its dangerous practices after the scandal but went underground. Infections through blood transfusions still occur.
“Dr. Gao impressed us with her energy,” said Professor Nathan. “The audience was obviously spellbound and had a lot of questions. She showed slides of victims who had died and brought home the reality of the epidemic for people.”
The event was co-sponsored by Vital Voices Global Partnership and the Weatherhead East Asian Institute at Columbia University, a department of the university that focuses on teaching, researching and publishing about modern Asia.