Honorary Fellow Professor Allan Chang (2006)

Allan “CHANG Mang Zing?was born in China in 1940. He landed in Australia a refugee in 1951. Along the way, he was briefly resident in Hong Kong. He knew little English when he landed in Australia and life was not easy. Nevertheless, he graduated as a doctor from the University of Sydney in 1964. It was a singular achievement.

This was followed by the MRCOG, obtained in London, in 1970. Following his return to Australia, he entered private practice but quickly realised his academic calling. Giving up financial security and comfort, he pursued postgraduate studies and obtained his PhD from Monash University in 1976, under the supervision of Professor Carl WOOD. He was senior lecturer at the University of Queensland from 1977 until 1982, from where he was appointed to the Foundation Chair at the then new medical school at The Chinese University of Hong Kong. He remained Chair Professor until 2000. Along the way, he was variously, the President of the Hong Kong College of Obstetricians & Gynaecologists, Vice President of the Hong Kong Academy of Medicine, Chief Executive of the NTEC Cluster of the Hospital Authority and Clinical Sub Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He was honoured with the 1997 Sims Black Professor by the RCOG.

In 2002, he was appointed Professor at The University of Queensland and his current post is Director of the Mater Research Support Centre. He remains active in research in his current role.

However, it is for his services to the specialty of obstetrics & gynaecology in Hong Kong, above all else, that COUNCIL has decided to confer him the Honorary Fellowship.

It was not easy starting a new department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology in 1983. The establishment of a second medical school was not uniformly welcomed at the time. New medical schools never are. In the new Professor of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, Hong Kong found a rather unconventional character. He was interested and knowledgeable in that strange discipline called statistics. The term EBM had not yet been coined. At a time when obedience was demanded, he encouraged debate. At a time when unquestioning agreement with the boss was the safest option, he encouraged people to disagree. Indeed, he often forced people to think laterally by taking positions himself on many matters that were often outrageous. Sometimes, having convinced you that he was right, he will then proceed to demolish his own arguments. 8 DialOGue However, despite all the difficulties and struggles, he built a department of international standing. Along the way, many well trained medical students and specialist obstetricians and gynaecologists have emerged. A substantial body of research was produced. The students and trainees, he always maintained, were his greatest pride.

Allan was devoted to our College. Indeed, it can be said that it was in the College that various powerful figures in the O&G field in Hong Kong found a common purpose. This was no small feat, if one reflects on who those figures were. The leaders of the time, including the formidable Professor MA, realised our specialty had to learn to stand on its own feet. That they were able to negotiate an amicable separation from the RCOG is testament to their political skills and respectability. Allan was intimately involved with the most crucial aspect of this separation, the establishment of a conjunctive examination with the RCOG, unique until 2006.

Allan was never “at home?in Hong Kong. It would be fair to say he was never entirely settled in Hong Kong. His Cantonese improved somewhat over the years. However, Mr President, few, in my experience, have been as devoted to the cause of Hong Kong, especially seen through the prism of the 2 institutions he loved most, The HKCOG and The Chinese University of Hong Kong.

This evening, we honour a distinguished former president and colleague. Our College and our specialty are richer for his contribution. Mr President, I present, for conferment with the Honorary Fellowship of our College, Allan CHANG.

Professor Tony Chung
at the conferment ceremony in 2006