Doctor from China found he’d left his heart in Hawaii

Years of intensive medical training in his native China taught Gong Hong Au about the mechanics of the human heart. An additional year of government-mandated study of herbal remedies and acupuncture unlocked the mysteries of traditional Chinese medicine.

But it was an invitation from a visiting patient that ultimately helped Au discover the secret to his own personal happiness.

Au, 68, was born and raised in Guang­zhou, the former Canton. A gifted student, he attended medical school, practiced internal medicine for eight years, then spent an additional seven years in cardiology.

One day a patient from Hawaii asked Au if he had ever considered visiting the United States. Intrigued, Au joined an exchange program administered by the East-West Center and came to Hawaii as a visiting scholar. While here, Au worked with colleagues from the University of Hawaii John A. Burns School of Medicine.

"I thought Hawaii was the best place to live," Au says. "The beaches are beautiful. The water is the best. And I made many good friends here."

Au later traveled to Vancouver, B.C., where he conducted cardiac research at the University of British Columbia for two years. But the impression that Hawaii left on Au’s heart and mind remained vivid.

And so Au returned to Hawaii and set up a Chinese medicine and acupuncture practice in Chinatown.

Au found the local marketplace to be most hospitable, with Asian clients eager to avail themselves of familiar remedies and Western patients having grown more receptive to a widening range of so-called complementary and alternative health practices.

"Ever since Nixon and Kissinger visited China, the United States has learned more about acupuncture and feng shui, and China has become more accepting of McDonald’s and Starbucks," Au says, laughing.

A committed lifelong learner, Au attended McKinley Community School for Adults to improve his English skills. He also got postgraduate education to earn certification for acupuncture.

"I got my high school diploma the same time I got my doctorate (in acupuncture)," Au says, laughing again.

Au’s office, now in Moiliili, is small, simply appointed and ideally suited for a man of modest tastes and desires.

Au works six days a week but calls his job "very easy." Four or five times a week, he’ll to ride his bicycle to Ala Moana Beach and swim. He enjoys dining with friends.

Au, who is divorced, has a son and granddaughter who live in China. He visits them once a year, though he finds the skies there not quite as blue, the clouds not as white.

"Hawaii is the best," he says.

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