Frank Ching is a Hong Kong-based writer, journalist, and university lecturer who has worked in China and East Asia for many years. His writings include Ancestors: 900 Years in the Life of a Chinese Family, published by Morrow, The Li Dynasty: Hong Kong Aristocrats, Oxford University Press, and Hong Kong and China: For Better or for Worse, jointly published by the China Council of the Asia Society and the Foreign Policy Association, New York. He is also guest editor of Healing with the Scalpel: From the First Colonial Surgeon to the College of Surgeons of Hong Kong, published by the College of Surgeons of Hong Kong.

This book reviews the medical history of Hong Kong, beginning with its birth as a British colony. It introduces the origins of Hong Kong’s medical education, which began in 1887 when the London Missionary Society set up the Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese. When the University of Hong Kong was established in 1911, the College became its medical faculty. The faculty has gained distinction over the years for innovative surgical techniques, for discovering the SARS virus and for its contribution to advances in medical and health sciences. This book is meant for general readers as well as medical practitioners. It is a work for anyone interested in Hong Kong or in medical education.