Page 13 - CUHK MEDICAL ALUMNI Newsletter Issue 2 Vol 12 2019

“Unconventional” Professor Elevated

O&G Department to International

Status by Expounding Debate, hISTORy

Not Obedience OF CUHK
MeDICINe

n 1982, Professor Allan Chang Mang-zing packed his bags and headed
out to Hong Kong from Australia to join the newly established Faculty of
I Medicine of the Chinese University of Hong Kong as Foundation Chair of
the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. By that time, he was already a
highly skilled O&G specialist with a number of academic titles under his belt.

Professor Chang received his MBBS degree in 1964 from the University of Sydney
and three years later, he set sail for Sheffield, England, for his specialist training at
the Jessops Hospital for Women. After obtaining his MRCOG in 1970, he returned
to Australia to become a private doctor in the coal mining town of Yallourn, Victoria.
However, he quit his practice to pursue his PhD at Monash University. In 1977, he
switched to the University of Queensland before deciding to come to Hong Kong
five years later.
Under his leadership, Professor Chang elevated the international status of the O&G
Department, with many of the students graduating as exceptional O&G specialists.
“Allan always maintained that the students and trainees were his greatest pride.
He was a very supportive chairman who got the best out of his staff. In the early
difficult days of the department, this was critical,” says Professor Tony Chung,
Emeritus Professor and former Associate Dean (General Affairs), Faculty of
Medicine, CUHK.

In those days when obedience to superiors was demanded he encouraged
debate, Professor Chung adds. “He encouraged people to disagree, often forcing
them to think laterally by taking positions himself on many matters that were
often outrageous. Sometimes, having convinced you that he was right, he’ll then
proceed to demolish his own arguments.”
He was truly a rather “unconventional character,” Professor Chung recalls.

Professor Chang left CUHK in 2002 to join the University of Queensland. He
was conferred Honorary Fellow of the Hong Kong College of Obstetricians and
Gynaecologists in 2006.

Call For

donations Gerald Choa Memorial Fund -

Leave a Mark

Medical alumni contributing HKD$10,000 or more will be
acknowledged with their name, engraved in bronze, on a
chair in the Lecture Theatre.

geraldchoa.med.cuhk.edu.hk/make_a_gift

11