Grey’s Anatomy

Grey ’s Anatomyhas been a television asylum for more than a XII years and the success of the series has a lot to do with its superfluity of interesting characters . Fans get laid the raw doctors being bring onto the show , but there ’s something to be said for the original work party of interns who start out it all when the first episode aired in 2005 .

These day , only Meredith Grey and Alex Karev remain of the original five , with the most recent going being Dr. Cristina Yang . It seemed Yang would remain on the serial forever , but the sentence at long last come at the end of the 10th season for Sandra Oh ’s character to make her exit .

Cristina was an important part of the show given that she made up the gist chemical group of interns and was Meredith ’s " somebody " she just could n’t know without . Now that she ’s pull up stakes the series , we thought it was high time to examine the character and reckon back at some of the more interesting prospect of what made Cristina such a compelling character reference on the series .

Grey’s Anatomy Poster

See how much of a lover you are by looking back and seeing what you already know of these16 Things Only True Grey ’s Anatomy Fans Know About Cristina Yang

16. WHY SHE BECAME A DOCTOR

If there ’s one affair to be enounce about Shonda Rhimes , it ’s that the cleaning woman knows how to save interesting and detailed character backstories . Cristina Yang is no exception to this rule and her rich backstory paint a picture of a woman who has had to struggle with nifty adversity in gild to become the successful and professional MD she ultimately became .

When she was a child , an accident left her Father of the Church severely injured . As he lay in her arms , she held his chest together for judge to cease the hemorrhage . alas , she was unable to save him and he draw in her arms . Instead of destroying her , as it would have most people , she used the event to orient her animation goal to becoming a Cardiothoracic surgeon so she could save people like her father in the futurity .

15. SHE COINED THE NAME “MCDREAMY”

For most of the series run and even following his death , Dr. Derek Shepherd was known colloquially as " McDreamy " and only dead on target fans of the series recall how he got the name . It was all thanks to Cristina , who correctly discover the doctor , play by Patrick Dempsey , as a wizardly and handsome serviceman . Calling him McDreamy came naturally to her in the episode " The First Cut Is The Deepest " , which was the 2nd installment in the series .

Cristina would go on to coin many " Mc " named for other doctors and interns on the serial including call in Dr. Sloan " McSteamy " and even " McLove Life " when describing Meredith ’s relationship .

Cristina was n’t the only one on the " Mc " describe plot . Many of the other fictional character have taken up the name challenge having do up with some pretty good unity over the age .

Grey’s Anatomy Cristina Yang

14. CRISTINA IS DYSLEXIC

Shonda Rhimes revel throwing adversary at her character , specially in the development degree . Instead of just keeping Cristina as a drive woman who rick to medicine following a horrific puerility chance event , she also made the persona dyslectic . Being dyslectic can be especially hard for develop child , but most mass can whelm the disorderliness and head normal , professional life .

Because she is dyslectic , Cristina has shown that it is not only possible to overcome the disorderliness , but excel beyond her peers despite it .

She was a square - A student who graduated at the top of her course at Smith College , Berkeley , and Stanford University . They did n’t go over her dyslexia much in the serial , but it is just another backstory detail that make her lineament all the more compelling .

Christina Yang in season 12 finale

13. SHE WAS A BIKER

You might not suppose it to look at her , but Cristina Yang is a biker . She used to ride when she was younger , but her time as a sawbones has made her somewhat distrusting of the automobile she once sleep together .

Like many doctors on the show and in real life , she now refers to motorcycles as " Donorcycles " due to the with child number of mass injured while riding them .

You ca n’t really pick her shift opinion on bike when you take a look at her clock time on the show . While not every someone who ends up with reed organ to spare for transplant capture that style while riding a motorcycle , a lot of them did , which is more than enough reason to become wary of riding . write the theatrical role this means adds a bit more realness .

Patrick Dempsey as Dr Derek Shepherd Greys Anatomy

12. CRISTINA’S FEELINGS ON MOTHERHOOD

While she was in the early stage of her internship , Cristina became fraught by Dr. Preston Burke . She booked an naming to terminate without tell him and would have gone through with the procedure had the pregnancy not been ectopic , which resulted in her losing the baby .

This event lead to the two go steady rather than keeping up the fling that got them to that stop .

Years later , she became pregnant once more by Dr. Owen Hunt and she once again decide to terminate . Though he is angry with her decision , Hunt attach to her to get the operation . The storyline was praise by critics due to the way of life it revolve around Cristina and her decisiveness . In yet another style the series emulate veridical - lifetime scenarios , handle something controversial helped to mature the character .

Christina Yang from Greys Anatomy

11. HER UNEXPECTED ANCESTRY

Cristina Yang is of Korean descent , but she does have some Jewish roots , which may surprise you . After her father passed , she ended up being raised by her female parent and Jewish step - beginner , Dr. Saul Rubenstein , an oral surgeon .

Though Cristina is a ego - account atheist on the serial publication , she has , at times expressed an bond to some aspects of Judaism .

Her female parent ended up convert to Judaism when she married Dr. Rubenstein , but the serial has n’t delved too much into Cristina ’s Judaic etymon . Though she is an atheist , she reacts to a patient who arrives with a Hakenkreuz tattoo displayed conspicuously . Upon visualise it , she says " My step - father ’s parent [ lost their sprightliness ] in Auschwitz " so her close relationship to her parents surely made an wallop on how she sees the human race .

Christina Yang and her motorcycle

10. SANDRA OH WAS DONE WITH THE CHARACTER

For a decade of awing television , it seemed Sandra Oh and her character would stay on the serial always . Sadly , that was n’t the case and we see the inauspicious leaving of one of the original five at the conclusion ofGrey ’s Anatomy’stenth time of year .

The reasons for writing Cristina off the serial revolved around the uncomplicated fact that Oh no longer want to play the character .

lover were sure upset , but she gaveThe Hollywood Reportersome sound reasons for her determination . " Creatively , I really feel like I gave it my all , and I feel quick to let her go . " We can certainly understand that .

Christina Yang Greys Anatomy Pregnancy

Few role player have the opportunity to toy a character for as long as Oh so it make sensory faculty that she palpate she had taken Cristina as far as she could go .

9. CRISTINA WAS SUPPOSED TO FALL FOR DENNY

One of the master storyline of the earlier seasons revolved around Dr. Izzie Stevens and her affair with the patient Denny Duquette . The character helped define Izzie , who go on to inherit a sizable amount of money from Duquette after he glide by away . She then opened a free clinic attached to the hospital with his money .

Everyone who watch the show associates the two character , but did you have it away Denny and Cristina were originally theorize to be the 1 to settle in love ?

The whole conception of a doctor falling in dear with a patient was initially meant for Cristina .

Cristina talking to her mom on Grey’s Anatomy

It ’s unspoiled this did n’t hap as it seems pretty farfetched given everything we have it off about Cristina . Falling in love with a spirit surgeon is her thing , not going for the moony patient in the bed down the residence hall .

8. CRISTINA’S DOPPELGANGER

For the 300th sequence of the serial , Shonda Rhimes decided to have a little playfulness when she present some new characters meant to do one matter : call back to an earlier time . She did this by cast doer who resemble the original three characters who has since leave the series ( Cristina , Izzie , and George ) . Not only did these folks look a number like the characters , their time on the episode hearken back to storylines from the first few season .

All of this unfolded under the watchful regard of Dr. Meredith Grey who , along with the audience watching the episode , get a feeling of nostalgia to what must seem like a mere metre for the series . It was a great direction to abide by the awe-inspiring accomplishment of air out a three-hundredth episode while also paying homage to the character who made that very achievement a possible action .

7. SHE ADVANCED BECAUSE OF A COVER-UP

There ’s no doubt Cristina is an excellent operating surgeon ; it ’s the very core of her being , but her power to perform complex procedures beyond her grade of experience has some duplicitous origins . When she was deeply postulate with Dr. Burke , he was snap during one of the serial ' more dramatic episodes . He survive , but his convalescence was long and arduous - and it came with a hired man tremor : something no operating surgeon need .

While Burke was still recovering , Cristina did something a minute unethical when she covered for him by concealing the bridge player tremor .

This led her to do complex procedures she was in no fashion prepared for at her story of experience . By doing this , she ended up advancing her career and abilities at a much faster pace than other surgeon at her level .

Sandrah Oh as Cristina Yang Season 1 to 11

6. She wins the competition of being most competitive

If there ’s one thingGrey ’s Anatomyhas teach us about Dr. , it ’s that surgeons are improbably competitive people . That makes a lot of common sense when you take there are only so many positions for a large group of people vying for them . They have to compete against people within their own programs as well as those outside their respective hospitals or they could be out of the job .

When it comes to Cristina , her pauperization to contend seems to be more profoundly ingrain than others .

Cristina is believably the most free-enterprise person on the show , which is say something . Her desire to win a Harper Avery Award and become the best Cardiothoracic surgeon in the human beings is more than a goal , it ’s a define character trait .

Christina Yang and Denny Duquette

5. HER ONLY TRUE LOVE IS SURGERY

We already know Cristina Yang is all about the operating theatre , but her adherence to the professing extends beyond anything else in her life . While she is devoted to a mistake to her acquaintance and has had numerous romantic affairs , it all goes decently back to surgery for Cristina . If you go back and canvass the 10 time of year she was on the series , everything she did revolved around or dislodge her focus right back into the operating room .

Her family relationship with Burke was , at least partly , about his skills as a surgeon .

That ’s what attracted her to him in the first place and while she may have been more interested in Owen for other reasons , their relationship at last fell apart and she went right back to concentre on her one dependable love , which is , without question , operating theater .

Cristina Doppelganger Greys Anatomy

4. SHE REPLACED HER FORMER LOVER AND MENTOR IN SWITZERLAND

When she began on the series , most of her initial storylines revolved around her relationship with Dr. Burke . He was n’t just her buff , though , he was also her wise man and the representation of where she need to be professionally .

The twain had their ups and downs and were going to marry , but Burke ended up leaving the hospital / serial and was n’t seen again until he prove up in the 10th season to help escort his former protégé from the series .

Burke address Cristina to Zurich , Switzerland where he presented her with the option to take over his position as the head of the Klausman Institute for Medical Research , which he institute . When she left the series , she in the end accomplished the goal she lay out for herself all the way back in the commencement when she reach the professional level of her mentor , Dr. Burke .

Cristina and Burke look at each in Grey’s Anatomy

3. SHE GAVE RISE TO BEING A “PERSON”

fan of the show be intimate that there ’s one thing Meredith ca n’t be without : her " someone . " For the character , a " person " is someone who you’re able to bank on in any situation , who will have your back , be your ally , your friend , your articulatio humeri to cry on , and your rock music .

The full term was coined on the serial publication to describe the kinship between Meredith and Cristina when the term BFF just was n’t enough to describe what they shared .

After Cristina left the series , the honour fell to Dr. Alex Karev , but he is something of a stand - in for Cristina , as Meredith really mislay something when Cristina left . What fans may not realize is that the pair not only coined the phrase , they entered it into the vocabulary , making it something masses all around the world now employ to describe the person they are cheeseparing to .

Christina Yang and Meredith Grey

2. SHE STILL AFFECTS THE STORY TO THIS DAY

She may have left the series at the end of the tenth season , but Dr. Cristina Yang is still a character on the show , if only in name and source . She is on occasion mentioned as someone Meredith has spoken to on the phone or she might be referenced in a conversation , but Cristina does n’t normally have anything to do with what ’s break down on .

In an episode deal with the fear of deportation many people forebode Dreamers face every day , Dr. Sam Bello is confronted with an ICE Agent and fear she may be sent to El Salvador . As the episode progress , various ideas are submitted for her to either run away , fight it , or simply hide . At the end of the episode , Meredith show Bello ’s espousal to Cristina ’s Zurich institute , which she had never apply for . As a favor to Meredith , Cristina ( off - camera , of grade ) made the whole thing happen .

1. SHE COULD RETURN…

devotee are n’t writing Dr. Yang off the show just yet and , gratefully , they are n’t the only one hop for a comeback . In an interview withEntertainment Weekly , Sandra Oh expressed an involvement in coming back to the serial for a finale episode to help close out the character alongside others . She reiterate that she did finger her pass on the show was the right choice and the way she snuff it still left some wiggle way for bringing back the fictitious character , but she belike would n’t render for any lengthy role .

Even if she only take back for a last episode should the series every get hold a way to conclude , it would be a welcome move sports fan sure enough would appreciate .

We may have buzz off a tearful and meaningful send - off for the character when she departed , but it would be overnice to see her one net time when the series comes to an end .

Christina Yang performing surgery


Christina and Doctor Burke in Zurich

Christina Yang and Meredith Grey in bed

Greys Anatomy Doctor

Christina Yang in a Taxi

Grey’s Anatomy