Cristina Yang

Cristina Yang
Grey's Anatomy character
The Season 7 Gallery Picture of Sandra Oh as Dr. Cristina Yang
First appearance	"A Hard Day's Night" 1x01, March 27, 2005
Created by	Shonda Rhimes
Portrayed by	Sandra Oh
Information
Occupation	Surgical Resident at Seattle Grace Mercy West Hospital
Title	M.D. Ph.D.
Family	Helen Rubenstein (mother)
Spouse(s)	Owen Hunt
Significant other(s)	Preston Burke (ex-fiancé)
Children	Unnamed Child (miscarried; with Preston Burke) Unnamed Child (aborted; with Owen Hunt)

Cristina Yang is a fictional surgeon on the ABC television series Grey's Anatomy.^[1] The character is portrayed by actress Sandra Oh, who won a Golden Globe and a SAG Award in 2006 for the role. Sandra Oh has since been nominated for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series at the 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009 Emmy Awards.

Background

Cristina Yang is a doctor of Korean descent and a native of Beverly Hills, California. Raised Jewish (her mother converted upon re-marriage to oral surgeon Saul Rubenstein), she has at times referred to herself as Jewish, although she believes only in science and is a strong atheist, implying that she is likely a Humanistic Jew. Her biological father died when she was nine years old in a car accident, where she watched him bleed out and die before help arrived. She has a B.A. from Smith College where she lived in Talbot House, a Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of California, Berkeley, and a M.D. from Stanford University School of Medicine, graduating first in her class. She is dyslexic, as discovered by Lexie Grey at the end of season 4.

Overview

Cristina is incredibly focused and driven (even more so than the others) and is always excited about the chance to scrub in on a surgery. Extremely competitive, she even resorts to stealing and hijacking patients if it means getting in on an exciting surgery. Cristina has excellent surgical skills, and was the intern with the most medical knowledge during her first year at Seattle Grace. However, she has difficulty conveying her feelings and dislikes being touched by anyone, including her mother. Her bedside manner has improved, but she finds it hard to empathize with most patients.

Cristina values logic and practical thinking above emotional reasoning, but has undergone several emotional situations since becoming an intern. Because of the traumatic experience of watching her father die, Cristina is unable to handle the emotional loss from the thought of losing her loved ones. While she initially grappled with the concept of expressing her feelings, Cristina has gradually become more comfortable with sharing her inner thoughts. Nevertheless, she is still considered the least emotional of all the interns. Despite rough patches with all (especially George and Izzie) Cristina's closest friends at the hospital remain Izzie, George, Alex, and most of all Meredith, her best friend and "person".

Cristina's first noted relationship in the series was with her medical school professor at Stanford, Dr. Colin Marlowe, a famous cardiothoracic surgeon. She broke off the relationship upon graduating. In her intern year at Seattle Grace, Cristina had a relationship with attending cardiothoracic surgeon Preston Burke, also world-renowned. They were engaged to be married until Burke left her at the church as a result of his hesitation about marrying her. Cristina's most recent relationship has been with attending trauma surgeon Major Owen Hunt, who was honorably discharged from the Army and was on a forward surgical team in the Iraq War. Owen suffers from PTSD and this is becoming a major factor in the relationship, causing them to briefly break off their relationship on a few occasions.

Sometime later she and Owen confess their love for one another via a three word sentence code "take care now" given to Owen by his shrink. Cristina then learns from him that the ceiling fan in her apartment was responsible for triggering his PTSD outburst that caused him to unintentionally harm her and is seen taking it down in the 100th episode. In the season five finale, she says "I love you" to Owen, telling him that she can't breathe without him; he tells her that they can be together and that she just has to meet him halfway and say yes. They soon share a passionate kiss, and she says yes to being with him.

In season 7, she marries Owen Hunt.

At the end of season 7, Cristina finds out that she is 6 weeks pregnant and is set on not having a child. Owen tries to convince her that it will all be okay and that he will take care of the baby. Cristina finally confronts Owen by asking him how much she loves her and telling him that she made an appointment to terminate the pregnancy. Owen is upset that he didn't get a say in the decision and tells her that they do not have a marriage and to get out.

In season 8, She ends up having the abortion, Owen is by her side.

Character history

Season One

Cristina Yang became an intern at Seattle Grace after graduating at the top of her medical school class from Stanford. On the first day of the internship, she hits it off with Meredith Grey. Cristina soon had a falling out with her because she felt that Meredith was given surgeries because of Derek’s favoritism and her famous mother, Dr. Ellis Grey. However, Cristina apologized to Meredith and the pair soon became best friends and each other's "person". Her frequent sarcastic remarks and lack of tact made it hard for people to like her, but her fellow interns gradually took to her ways and became friends with her as well.

She is touched by the fact that Burke admitted to having made a huge error in a surgery. Cristina followed Burke into the on-call room, locked the door and then they proceeded to have sex. Burke tried to get Cristina to define their relationship, but a commitment-phobic Cristina brushed him off. She found out she was pregnant and scheduled an abortion.

Season Two

Unable to deal with her emotions about the pregnancy and impending abortion, she distanced herself from a bewildered, frustrated Burke, telling only Meredith about her pregnancy, as she was her emergency contact 'person'. Meanwhile, her covert relationship with Burke came out into the open after George saw them kissing and told Meredith and Izzie. After the Chief told Burke that he could only be interim Chief of Surgery if he was prepared to sacrifice his personal life, he decided to break up with Cristina. Cristina, hurt by his decision, decided not to tell Burke about her pregnancy. However, while in surgery with Burke she collapsed from an ectopic pregnancy and her left fallopian tube burst. Burke was shocked to find out about the pregnancy, but Cristina reminded him that he broke up with her. Despite that, he was the only one whom she allowed to comfort her when she could not stop crying from her grief.

The couple reconciled and officially became a couple. On their first official date, Cristina and Burke realized that they have almost nothing in common. Burke also noted that Cristina is “very hard to get to know” and she agreed. Although their relationship was dysfunctional, it was still going strong as they were clearly in love with each other.

Their different beliefs cause more obstacles in their relationship. Burke's spirituality differed from Cristina's. She began looking down on Burke for beliefs she considered irrational, while Burke was hurt and angry she wouldn't accept his spirituality.

Cristina’s commitment issues resurfaced when Burke surprised her with a key to his apartment. She believed they weren't ready in their relationship to live together. Cristina introduced Burke to her extremely messy apartment and lifestyle, but Burke accepted her for what she was. She eventually agreed to move in with Burke, but secretly kept her old apartment. When Burke found out, she gave up her apartment.

During Burke's surgery after he was shot in the arm, she panicked and fled, her turbulent emotions preventing her from keeping him calm. This impacted her deeply, for she knew it wasn't like her at all to be controlled by her emotions in such a way. She begged the Chief to teach her how to suppress her emotions so she could become a great surgeon, but he refused, saying that he wouldn't be responsible for destroying what made her human.

Season Three

Burke discovered he had developed a hand tremor during his recovery. Cristina helped him disguise his tremor using a covert partnership. She managed Burke's surgery schedule and scrubbed in on all his surgeries. However, her exclusivity to rare surgeries incited jealousy and suspicion from the other interns. George, after witnessing one of Burke's hand tremors, confronted Cristina about it. She frantically denied it, but suffered a crisis of confidence and eventually confessed everything to the Chief.

Cristina's actions jeopardized Burke's chances of becoming Chief of Surgery, and Burke saw this as a huge betrayal. Both parties refused to talk to each other after the fallout, jeopardizing their relationship. Cristina eventually broke the silence, and Burke asked her to marry him. Cristina was stunned and only accepted his proposal after eight days of hesitation.

When Meredith flatlined after falling into the water during the ferry crisis, Cristina fled after she realized she could not deal with the fact that her "person" was dying. Burke encouraged her to confront her feelings, and she burst into the trauma room and insisted that the doctors try to revive Meredith again. Meredith soon woke up, and an overwhelmed Cristina happily told Meredith that she was getting married to Burke, and Meredith was the one person she wanted to tell.

Cristina's life was further complicated when her former professor and lover, Colin Marlow, arrived at Seattle Grace. In a bid to win her back, he repeatedly came on to her and tried to sabotage her relationship with Burke. On top of that, he joined the race for Chief of Surgery, so as to compete with Burke and impress her. Marlow was not convinced by Cristina's affections for Burke. Marlow humiliated Burke in the operating room by belittling Burke's knowledge of cardiothoracics, and relegated Burke to just observing the surgery. Marlow tells Cristina she had compromised herself for Burke, and was no longer the competitive and driven person he fell in love with; she responded by saying, "I have learned that sometimes, you have to think about other people." However, Cristina did unknowingly let her personality gradually erode away by constantly giving in to Burke's decisions about their wedding and their relationship. This went up to the extent where she opted to go ahead with Burke's lavish wedding plans, which was the complete opposite of what she wanted.

On the day of her wedding, Cristina remained plagued by self-doubt. She realized that her love for Burke was changing her into someone else. Desperate, Cristina insisted on coming to the hospital that day to participate in a surgery to feel like herself again. As she gathered enough courage to walk down the aisle, Burke called off the wedding, realizing that he could not continue the way they were living now, with Cristina constantly changing herself to please him. Cristina returned to their apartment, finding all of his prized possessions gone. She is both incredibly relieved and saddened, bursting into tears, and begging Meredith to take off her wedding dress. She and Meredith went on a "honeymoon" to Hawaii during the timeskip to make up for the canceled marriage.

Season Four

In the beginning of the fourth season, it was revealed that Burke had left the hospital and moved to an unknown place, leaving no contact information so he could make a clean break from Cristina. She found it hard to get over Burke, but managed to cope. A turning point came when Burke's mother arrived to speak with Cristina, a woman tough and difficult to handle. Cristina was terrified of the meeting due to their past strained relationship, but found Mrs. Burke to be disarmingly understanding. She acknowledged that Cristina loved surgery more than she loved Burke, and that it was best that she now wouldn't have to compromise herself the way she would have had he stayed. She assured her that as a woman, she would heal, and encouraged her to study cardiothoracics like she had planned. She even envied her, wishing that she could have been "born in a different time" so she might have been more like Cristina.

Sometime later, Dr. Erica Hahn arrived to perform a surgery in Seattle Grace. She immediately disliked Cristina for her affairs with Marlow and Burke and prevented her from scrubbing in on the surgeries. Cristina angrily confronted her about it at the end of the episode, only to find that the Chief has just hired Hahn as the hospital's new Head of Cardiothoracics. In the following episodes, Dr. Hahn began preventing Cristina from scrubbing in on any cardiothoracic surgeries.

Callie and Cristina began bonding and eventually Callie moved into Cristina's apartment. The two shared a bond since both their lovers left them. Cristina also had a rivalry with fellow resident Izzie Stevens after Izzie decided to try the cardiothoracic pathway, with Dr. Hahn choosing Izzie for surgeries over Cristina. However, Izzie was not "hardcore" enough, so the rivalry ended between her and Cristina just as quickly as it had begun.

Cristina still tried to win the approval of Dr. Hahn, with each attempt being brutally rebuffed. This was due to the fact that Cristina reminded Dr. Hahn of a younger version of herself. When news of Burke winning a Harper Avery award reached Seattle Grace, Cristina felt betrayed for not being credited, and started to act unusually, like singing Madonna's Like a Virgin while harvesting hearts from cadavers, refusing to talk to Dr. Hahn when she tried to bring up Burke's arrogance, and cleaning her messy apartment. She later admitted to Dr. Webber, after she puts Burke's name on her "Date and Tell" form, that she helped performed his surgeries for him when he had hand tremors, but he did not mention her in the article. She was his hand, but was now a ghost because Erica wouldn't let her perform any procedures, Burke seemed to have moved on and she was still in the same place walking the same halls that Burke did and living in Burke's apartment, and her life was "unbearable".

Season Five

After finding out Seattle Grace's top spot as one of the best teaching hospitals in America was bumped down, Cristina began to doubt her decision and her abilities. Her continued clash with Erica Hahn and her less than satisfactory teaching skills resulted in an angry confrontation with Meredith, who continually told her about her relationship with Derek. She told Meredith that she did not think getting back together was a great idea because that would only result in more drama. She was then impaled by a falling icicle, but it caused only a very minor injury. She softened when Meredith told her that she needed her support because she was her 'person' and everything she said mattered immensely.

Adding to her agitation was the fact that the chief did not want them to focus on their intended specialties, to further their teaching abilities. When Meredith was assigned to Hahn, Cristina's proficiency in cardiothoracics was seen when she flawlessly instructed Meredith how to stitch on a ten year old boy's artery. She had a brief period of supposed calm when she stepped into the dermatology department of Seattle Grace, and found that everyone there was happy. She considered going into dermatology, but liked the thrill of blood and disease too much.

A new love interest in the form of army surgeon Owen Hunt was introduced for Cristina. She was impressed when he performed a tracheotomy on a man with a pen. This was further emphasized when he stapled his wound himself without any anaesthesia and, upon taking over her case when she was stabbed by an icicle, he told her stories about his experiences in the field. They shared a brief kiss, and she was visibly dismayed when he refused the job offer made by the chief, opting to finish his tour in Iraq.

Upon Hunt's return, Cristina was shaken because of the kiss they shared. When he forgot her name at skills training, she worked to prove herself to him. Her skill in surgery and her ability to work with her interns was seen when they tried to save the lives of four pigs, the 'living tissue' Owen instructed them to work with. A softer side was seen when she refused to put the pigs down, but, after Owen's admission of what really happened to him in Iraq, she reconsidered and saw him in a different light. Cristina told him about the death of her father, and Owen began treating her more nicely, tying a trauma gown on for her while waiting for an ambulance to arrive. After the doctors at Seattle Grace lost a patient, Cristina went up to Owen at Joe's Bar and told him she was sorry the patient was lost. After denying that he needed her, Owen kissed Cristina very desperately. She ended it abruptly and walked away. The following day, they avoided speaking to one another until Cristina returned home to find Owen on the steps of her apartment building. She sat beside him, taken by surprise when he told her that he thought she was beautiful.

In "All By Myself", the attendings unanimously choose Cristina to perform the solo surgery, but she was disqualified. She picked Alex to be her replacement, after Owen told her to go with her gut, because that was what prompted him to pick her. After Meredith told her that she did not want their fight to continue, and that she understood that Cristina did not pick her for the solo surgery because of their recent differences, Cristina flared up and walked away. Owen followed her and brought her to the vents of the hospital, where she stood directly above one and felt the wind blowing up her hair. She and Owen shared a passionate kiss afterwards.

Later in the season, Cristina's relationship with Owen was strained, with the main trigger being his attempt to strangle her in one of his night terrors. Initially, Cristina planned to stick by Owen's side, but after making love to him in the on-call room, she realised that she could never feel safe in his arms, stating that she was scared to fall asleep with Owen next to her.

This separation prompted a heartbroken Owen, in "Sweet Surrender", to embark on a series of sessions with a shrink, with whom he compiled a list of three-word phrases that he could say to Cristina. He couldn't bring himself to tell Cristina that he loved her, because he didn't want to hurt her, so instead he told her to "take care now."

Soon, however, it became evident that Cristina truly loved Owen. He told Cristina that he was going to return to the army and asked for her support but she walked away, telling Owen "You don't have it." As she saw how sick Izzie was, she expressed disillusionment with medicine, saying that every patient will die no matter how skilled their surgeon is, and told Owen that she didn't want him to die. This seemingly convinced Owen not to return to the army and, with Cristina's encouragement, Owen overcame his fear of seeing his mother, with Cristina accompanying him to his mother's house. The following episode saw Cristina confessing her love for him; she, herself, found this shocking and was seemingly angry with herself, eventually admitting that "I can't breathe without you." Owen then asked her to meet him halfway, by saying "Yes." Cristina, giving Owen a passionate kiss, said "Yes" to him on the hospital bridge.

Season Six

During season 6 Cristina becomes more and more depressed about the lack of cardio surgeries she scrubs into. She even tells Meredith that she misses Burke because when he worked at Seattle Grace, she would be in a surgery every day. This leads Owen to get his old friend from the Army, Dr. Teddy Altman, a job as a cardio surgeon. Cristina, who is unimpressed with Teddy's skills, is left alone by Teddy during hard surgery. That angers Owen, but Cristina finally becomes enthusiastic about Teddy being her teacher. A complicated situation arises when it becomes evident that Teddy is in love with Owen and he is unsure about his feelings for her. When Teddy wants to leave the hospital, Cristina tells her than she can have Owen if that is the only way she can stay.

Teddy promises not to interrupt Cristina and Owen's relationship, but still has thoughts about her old flame. When Teddy's job at Seattle Grace becomes insecure, Cristina asks Owen to tell Derek to let Teddy stay. Owen actually does the opposite, asking Derek to fire Teddy. Derek tells Meredith and she is unsure whether she should repeat it to Cristina. She doesn't, but Cristina eventually finds out and when Owen still can't decide what he feels, she decides to quit their relationship for good during the season finale.

In the meantime, the husband of Derek's dead patient, Mr. Gary Clark, enters the hospital with intention to kill Derek (also Richard and Lexie). Cristina sees him for the first time in the elevator, just after he killed Reed and injured Alex. He asks her where Derek can be found and she politely explains the way to Derek's office. Meredith tells her she is pregnant and Cristina finds some comfort in this information after her break-up with Owen. Derek is mad that both of them are walking around the hospital during the lock-down and asks them to stay in a supply closet. Cristina sees Mr. Clark with a gun and realizes that he is looking for Derek. This leads her and Meredith to watch Mr. Clark shooting Derek. Cristina puts herself together while Meredith and April Kepner (who also came face to face with the shooter but was released) become a mess. She tries to get Owen or Teddy to rescue Derek but they are both gone, so she - with help from Jackson Avery - decides to operate on him by herself. Owen comes back to save her in time to find Mr. Clark holding the gun to her head and threatening to kill her if she continues to operate on Derek. Meredith comes in and tries to sacrifice herself in order to save Derek. Cristina distracts Mr. Clark by revealing the news about Meredith's pregnancy. Owen tries to get the gun, but Mr. Clark is faster and shoots Owen. Cristina is panicked when she sees Owen seemingly dead on the floor. Luckily, she goes along with Jackson's plan to disconnect the heart monitor and make Mr. Clark think that Derek has died. After Mr. Clark exits, Cristina successfully completes the surgery, saving Derek's life and giving credence to her growing skills as a cardio-thoracic surgeon. In the meantime, she asks Meredith to save Owen, though Meredith has a miscarriage during the procedure.

Season Seven

Cristina spends all her time in the Season 7 premiere planning her wedding and refusing to consider returning to surgery. She states that she just wants to be a simple girl and be happy with wedding preparations because "no one holds a gun to the head of a simple girl." She and Owen were married in the seventh season premiere. When she returns to the OR in the second episode, she experiences post traumatic stress disorder and falls to the floor unable to move. This also causes her to consider leaving Owen, but she decides against it after speaking with Meredith. Derek advocates for her return and attempts to bring her back to her old self by having her repeat the bullet removal she performed at gunpoint on a cadaver. She seems to be returning to normal after a push from Teddy when she advocates for the life of a lung transplant patient. However, in the seventh episode, Cristina tells Meredith she blames her for her trauma and she quits her job at the hospital, stating that although she could return to being a surgeon, she just no longer wants to. After spending some time in seclusion at hers and Owen's apartment, she eventually gets a job as a bartender at Joe's ,shocking all the attendings that see her there. Cristina then goes on a fishing trip with Derek and finds some emotional release when she relaxes, stops thinking, and catches a huge fish. It's a moment of breakthrough for her because it marks the first time since the shooting that she has felt an emotion other than fear. The next morning, she is seen in bed with Owen, telling him that she feels better. Cristina then follows several ambulances the next day towards the scene of a mass shooting. Later at the hospital, it is shown that Cristina cracked one of the victim's chest in the field. She participates in the man's surgery with Teddy Altman and they find out that the man is the shooter. Jackson Avery leaves the OR but Christina chooses to stay. Later during the surgery, Dr. Altman thanks Cristina for staying and knows that it was not an easy decision to make. However, Cristina responds saying that it was an easy decision. At the end of the day, Christina Yang and Meredith Grey both reconcile and celebrate.

In "Start Me Up" Cristina is shown to be back to her normal self. She is once again working and doing "four surgeries today". She also has a medical student shadow her. At first she is annoyed by him, but later she begins to be a very good teacher. Cristina is shown to be completely over her trauma, even using it to manipulate Jackson out of a key cardio surgery. She starts to compete for the spot as Chief Resident, but her hopes are brought to a halt when Owen is chosen to select the winner and when she goes above Dr. Altman and saves Callie Torres' life. Teddy states that she 'can't teach her anymore,' since Cristina won't listen. Teddy continues to stop letting Cristina on her service through 'I Will Survive.' Cristina, upset over her low chance of winning Chief Resident, stops having sex with Owen so he can see her as a viable candidate in the race. She again stops using hospital protocol and looks into a patient's lung, finding a tree growing there. The patient, overjoyed that he didn't have cancer as he was 'told' by April, asks that Cristina does the surgery, even when Teddy and Webber find out. Owen later tells Cristina that she will not be Chief Resident- he won't choose her because he knows she will hate the job. He tells her to do what she is best at- being a brilliant surgeon. She walks out. Later, we find Cristina sitting at a bar, telling Alex to go take a job in Africa because that's what he's best at. Owen comes to apologize, but instead, Cristina kisses him and tells him she is going to take his advice and do what she is best at- being a surgeon and a wife.

Cristina is found to be pregnant with Owen's baby in 'Unaccompanied Minor'.

Season Eight

In She's Gone, Christina has the abortion with Owen by her side.

References

1. ^ "Character Bios". ABC.com. http://abc.go.com/primetime/greysanatomy/bios. Retrieved 2009. 

External links

• Grey's Anatomy at ABC.com