For those of you who watch Grey’s Anatomy, you know who I mean.

Christina Yang is a character played by Sandra Oh: a cardiothoracic surgeon at the hospital. Meredith Grey is her best friend: another top surgeon. They have rituals: “dancing it out”, being “each other’s person”, and not going to that “dark and twisty place”. Two women passionate about professional excellence and their friendship.

Doctor Yang  is competitive, ambitious, intelligent, and at the same time, brutally honest, insensitive, aggressive and tactless.  While I’m not recommending that all her manager behaviors be emulated (how she handles the new residents…and how they love it), she is inspiring because she is who she is and is unapologetic about it.  How refreshing is that?

This past May, Dr Yang left Grey’s Anatomy.  Thank you Sandra Oh for giving us a female Asian television character as authentic and brave as Dr Yang.