My father, an oriental medical doctor, always wished that his eldest son would succeed to his business. He strongly urged me, against my will, to go to the College of Oriental Medicine in Kyunghee University where he also lectured. At that time, Kyunghee University was the only college with that area of study. But, to me from my childhood, oriental medicine has been nothing but a musty idea, a relic of the past. What is worse is that oriental medicine was then an unpopular area of study. For that reason, I could hardly find any interest in oriental medicine, much less take pride in it.

It was thus quite natural for me to spend more time and energy in my college years mainly in extracurricular activities, rather than in my major subject, that is oriental medicine. It took me four years of pre-Oriental Medical School within a  six year curriculum to bring myself to my senses. My identity crisis had finally come to an end at that point. That was when I began my actual and serious courses in oriental medicine. The fact that I was involved in a study that can actually cure people in pain began to fascinate me, and I felt that being an oriental medical doctor would be a true vocation in life.

I would become a great oriental medical doctor. That was then my mission in life, and my daily study plan was fine-tuned to achieve that goal. However, something totally unexpected was awaiting me, just as I had reformed myself. I got expelled from school due to the indictment for my leadership in the student movement against President Park Jung Hee's dictatorship. I had been at that time the president of a student body at my university, called the Christian Society.

A short period of time in jail, forced enlistment in the military, and three years of military service as a soldier were my fate until my civilian status was restored. However, the door to freshly restart my studies in oriental medicine, and thus to pursue my career as an oriental doctor, remained shut for political reasons. As a college dropout, getting a job seemed impossible. And, as a grownup, I found it more than shameful to ask my parents for financial support.

Several months of my jobless life led me to take a teaching position in an institution providing test preparation classes for college admission. I began teaching English for junior schoolers, and, sooner or later, was put in charge of preparation for college admission. That was when I devoted myself to teaching English, since students would easily label a teacher with a weak command of the subject matter incompetent. It is not too much to say that my current abilities in English were developed in those days.

In any case my dream to become an oriental doctor seemed remote. To my surprise, however, another unexpected incident took place while I was preparing to pursue religious studies in the US. The breaking news of President Park Jung Hee's assassination by his right-hand man shook the entire country and instantly, but temporarily, changed the whole world. Along the wind of democratization, we, so-called political activists, were allowed to return to our schools. Like triumphant soldiers, we were welcomed by admiring students. In one year after re-admission, I graduated from the school of oriental medicine, and finally became an oriental medical doctor.  

The best way for me, an unskilled apprentice doctor, to practice oriental medicine was to learn from the competent and experienced senior doctors. Although the training from my father, who was himself an oriental medical doctor, has been of great help, I also sought help from various other well-respected doctors. Among them, the late Dr. Kim Jong Hak with a pen-name Il-Sin-Dang has left a deep impression on my memory.

He was a learned man who would fill the black board with terms from difficult texts and abstract theories by heart. To acquire the teachings of oriental medicine from such a great scholar, I would get up at 5 am and commute from Kwangmyung city to Jamsil, Seoul, three times a week. What I have clearly learned from him was that it is nothing but a 'crime' for an incompetent doctor to profit from patients. He used to say that a doctor should keep books within his or her reach in order not to 'commit crime.'

In retrospect, I became a doctor in my thirties, well behind my other classmates. Since then, I suppose the only goal that I have had in my mind for 20 years of my medical practice was to become a wealthy doctor capable of treating patients well. While I tried to live up to Dr. Kim's teaching by ceaselessly studying and researching, it is hard to deny my awareness that competency would bring me wealth. Now in my late forties going on the fifties, I cannot help thinking to myself that I should not live the way I have been living. There is a saying that one learns in his twenties, earns in thirties and forties, and gives in fifties, and I kept telling myself that I would start a new life once I become fifty. In that vein, the last several years I have been preparing myself for such a project.

That is, - To let the world know about traditional Korean medicine. I am positive that my strong interpersonal and multi-language skills, developed in diverse cultural backgrounds and in college years, would work as a valuable asset to globalize  traditional Korean medicine. Given that my major was not in Chinese, but in traditional Korean medicine, it came to me as a life mission to do something meaningful and far-reaching, rather than just to end my life treating patients. Accordingly, as a way of finalizing my preparation, I established Dr. CHONG Woncho's Institute of Sasang Constitutional Medicine to make a systematic and organized approach to Korean medicine. I strongly believe that this is worthy of something that I could devote the rest of my life to. Considering that there was a time when the term 'Korean Medicine' was rarely heard, I am more than pleased just to imagine that the reputation of Korean medicine might exceed that of Chinese medicine as a result of the recognition of its true value.

I would not say it is just a daydream to picture a doctor taking the pulse for diagnosis in the Korean way, prescribing medicine or treating a patient with acupuncture based on his or her own constitution. An invention with a great value is sure to be sold; that is just a matter of time.

The fact that there is something out there of a greater value than and superior to Chinese medicine excites me.