A young Yao Lan Chen and husband Vasiliy Tovarov - Photo courtesy of Kristina Tovarova

The story of Dr. Yao Lan Chen is one of strength, perseverance, love and an interracial relationship, set not in one, but two of the world’s worst dictatorial regimes.

Some people impress you with their achievements, while others inspire you with their outlook and way of thinking. And yet others take your breath away urging you to write down their story.

Yao Lan was born into a well-to-do Buddhist family from the Chinese province of Guangdong. They lived in British Hong Kong and she studied Chinese medicine in Beijing.

While there, she came across a newspaper article featuring a star Russian student, Vasiliy Tovarov.

Sporting a red pioneer tie, Vasiliy, a top student at Moscow State University, was selected to study in Beijing as part of student exchange with the Soviet Union.

Impressed by Vasiliy’s accomplishments, which included fluency in nearly 10 foreign languages, Yao Lan wrote to him through the newspaper, and he responded. A whirlwind romance ensued, eventually leading to a wedding.

Happy romantic moments in Beijing were tempered by the concerns of Yao Lan’s family, who liked Vasiliy but worried about the ramifications of marrying her off to a Soviet communist.

“During Stalin’s rule, when my parents met, dating a Soviet communist was acceptable in mainland China, [but] not when you had family in Hong Kong,” explains Yao Lan’s daughter Kristina Tovarova.

Dr. Yao Lan Chen (left), Kristina Tovarova (centre) and Leonard Tovarov (right) – Photo courtesy of Kristina Tovarova

She added that during this time, her mother’s relatives in Hong Kong were being persecuted because of a family connection with a Soviet citizen.

When Stalin’s successor, Khrushchev, came to power in the Soviet Union, dating a Soviet citizen became unacceptable in mainland China because of the ideological differences between the two Communist parties, historically known as the Sino-Soviet split.

The situation was further exacerbated with the onset of Mao Tse-tung’s Cultural Revolution that targeted Chinese intellectuals, teachers, and other potential counter-revolutionaries. Yao Lan and Vasiliy had to flee to the Soviet Union with their baby boy Sasha.

Vasiliy’s rural hometown greeted Yao Lan with caution and hostility. She did not speak a word of Russian, and looked different from the predominantly blue-eyed population. The couple moved to the somewhat more cosmopolitan Moscow, where Vasiliy got a job at a radio station.

Political hurdles continued and Yao Lan refused to accept Soviet Union citizenship, as it would prevent her from visiting her family in China.

As a result, she was to report to KGB monthly to describe her activities and movements. Her letters were intercepted and the apartment could be searched at any time without notice. In turn, Vasiliy was persecuted for having a non-Soviet wife, leading him to eventually lose his job.

Still, Yao Lan did not despair. Her doctoral training in traditional Chinese medicine and unique aptitude placed her in an exclusive position in the Soviet Union. The word of her healing skills spread through Moscow, eventually reaching high-ranking party officials.

“By day they questioned, her as a potential spy, and by night they lined up to use her acupuncture services,” says Kristina Tovarova, noting her mother’s underground popularity.

Yao Lan eventually learned to play the system and got her patients to help her family relocate to the warm Yalta (now Ukraine), where she and Vasiliy could work.

In the following years, Dr. Yao Lan Chen went from being an outcast to being a nationally recognized physician, whose clients included famous poets, painters, actors and members of Soviet intelligentsia.

“People waited up to a year to get an appointment with her,” recalls Kristina Tovarova, who met her mom’s famous visitors during her childhood.

After Vasiliy’s death in the 1990s, Yao Lan moved to Canada and at 60 years old, obtained a medical license, soon becoming a renowned practitioner of Chinese medicine.

She is listed in the Cambridge Who’s Who directory, and, according to Kristina Tovarova, she had “enough medical distinctions to fill two full walls in the apartment.”

Dr. Yao Lan Chen passed away recently from esophageal cancer leaving behind a legacy of talent, love and personal strength.

Her second son, Leonard Tovarov, is continuing her professional legacy through a private acupuncture practice in Yalta.

“My mom’s message was to never give up, live today and look forward to tomorrow,” says Kristina Tovarova. “She never regretted anything she did, and said that she would follow my dad anywhere. In turn, my dad called her not a wife, but a saint woman.”

An ‘80s-themed gala in memory of Dr. Yao Lan Chen will take place on Nov. 19, 2011 at 7p.m. at The Kozmik Zoo (53 W. Broadway).

Donations to the BC Cancer Foundation in memory of Dr. Yao Lan Chen are being accepted at: www.bccancerfoundation.com