Honorary University Fellows
Dr David FANG is a private orthopaedic surgeon whose main interests are in the neck and back, adult hip reconstruction, and knee surgery.
Dr Fang holds an MBBS from HKU and a Masters degree in Orthopaedics (MChOrth) from the University of Liverpool. He has served in the HKU Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and as an honorary consultant orthopaedic surgeon at Queen Mary, Grantham, and Nethersole Hospitals.
Dr Fang continues to contribute to the University as Honorary Professor of the Medical Faculty and Honorary Clinical Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery. He is a member of the board of directors, HKU Shenzhen Hospital.
He was Editor in Chief of the Journal of Orthopaedic Surgery 1992-2012 and remains Editor Emeritus.
Dr Fang has held the Presidency of the Hong Kong Orthopaedic Association, the Hong Kong Medical Association and the Hong Kong Academy of Medicine. He has been Chairman of the Health and Medical Development Advisory Committee, a member of the Medical Council and Chairman of its Ethics Committee.
Dr Fang has been Medical Superintendent of St. Paul’s Hospital, President of the Hong Kong Society for Rehabilitation, and Chairman of the MacLehose Medical Rehabilitation Centre. He was Chairman of the SARS Trust Fund and a member of the Sports Commission. He is Director of the WHO Regional Collaboration Centre for Rehabilitation. He is Honorary President of Arts with the Disabled Hong Kong and a founder member of Opera Hong Kong.
He was appointed Justice of the Peace in 1992, elected Honorary Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians in 1997, awarded the Silver Bauhinia Star in 1998, and elected Honorary Fellow of the Hong Kong Academy of Medicine in 2005.
Citation written and delivered by Professor Gabriel LEUNG, Dean of Medicine
If ever there is a quintessential medical family, the Fangs would be first amongst equals. At its centre is David FANG Jin Sheng, who is a former colleague in the medical school’s orthopaedics department and currently honorary professor of the Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine. At its head was of course his distinguished forebear, fellow alumnus and honorary graduate the late Professor Sir Harry Fang, in whose very large footsteps David has added his own unique set of indelible imprints. The line is carried by David's three sons, Christian, Benjamin and Jonathan, who have already shown great promise with gold medals and other awards as they in turn blaze their own trails bearing the staff of Aesclepius.
Fang's "family" extends far beyond blood relations. Over decades of public service while managing a large private group practice and superintending a hospital, he had led virtually every major medical fraternity and statutory professional body locally and in the wider Asia Pacific. He is particularly appreciated for his understated sapiential authority, commanding respect with the gentlest of manner and declaiming fundamental principles sotto voce.
For those who have been serenaded by Fang's soaring tenor tunes, and less commonly heard falsetto soprano lyricisms, often in the same song, his onstage persona reveals an artistic Florestan to his professional Eusebius. In contrast to the coolheaded equanimity of a thoughtful professorial healer, he has wowed fans singing Italian arias, French chansons, German lieder, Spanish tangos, as well as Cantonese opera in English, with gusto and aplomb.
To many, fellowship awards and high honours bring a lifetime of achievements to a fitting conclusion; today's ceremonials are but a fermata in the middle act of Fang’s opera, in the musical and more importantly etymological sense. He will be devoting much of his energy to bringing about his vision of a third sector in Hong Kong's health system, where academic-led services comprising research and teaching, that are paid for by able and willing private citizens, under the joint stewardship of medical schools and charities. For the collective good, may echoes of “vincerò” ring as loudly when his vision becomes reality as in his rendition of Nessun dorma.
With pride and in admiration, as a comrade in the theatres of Vesalius and of Verdi, I present to you, Mr Pro- Chancellor, Professor David FANG Jin Sheng for the Honorary University Fellowship.