Foreword from Professor Weiguo Hu

As one of the founding members of the World Association for Plastic Surgeons of Chinese Descent (WAPSCD),I have a great pleasure to write this foreword for theChinese Journal of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery(CJPRS), mainland China’s first English plastic surgery journal, directed by my dear friends, the Professor Qingfeng Li, Editor-in-Chief, and the Professor Xiaoxi Lin, Executive Editor, both from the world well-known Shanghai Ninth People’s Hospital.

As an overseas Chinese academic plastic surgeon, I could never forget the tie between the Shanghai Ninth People’s Hospital and my professional career in France.In fact, in 1987, as a master degree student on microsurgery in Beijing, directed by Professor Shengxiu Zhu, former President of the Microsurgery Branch of the Chinese Medical Association, I was recommended by Professor Tisheng Chang, the father of modern plastic and reconstructive surgery in China, Director of the Shanghai Ninth People’s Hospital, to go to France for my doctoral degree study in plastic, reconstructive, and aesthetic surgery.

I remember very well this sundrenched afternoon of May 1987 when Professor Tisheng Chang received me in his off ice at the old building of the Shanghai Ninth People’s Hospital with so much kindness.He offered me a delicious cup of tea, signed the recommendation letter to his old friend, Professor Jacques Baudet, European pioneer of reconstructive microsurgery, Chief of the Department of Plastic, Reconstructive,and Aesthetic Surgery, Micro- and Hand Surgery at the Bordeaux University Hospital, and encouraged me to study and work hard in France with his unforgettable paternal smile.

Professor Chang’s smile and exhortation have deeply imprinted on my mind and have stood for a motor during my whole professional life in France.At the end of my residency in plastic, reconstructive, and aesthetic surgery at the Bordeaux University Hospital under the direction of Professor Baudet, I obtained the prestigious diploma of the French Society of Plastic Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgery (SOFCPRE)in 1992, ranked as the major of my promotion.After accomplishment of my function as an Assistant-Professor of plastic, reconstructive and aesthetic surgery, I left Bordeaux University at the end of 1995, with the encouragement of my tutor and mentor, Professor Baudet, to go to French northwest Harbor city Brest to develop plastic, reconstructive, and aesthetic surgery, micro- and hand surgery at the new Brest University Hospital.Appointed as Associate Professor in 1999, full permanent Professor in 2006, and f inally member of the French Academy of Surgery (ANC) and President of SOFCPRE, I have done my best during the last 34 years in France as an academic plastic surgeon to treat my patients, to teach my students, and to develop plastic, reconstructive, and aesthetic surgery-related research works.

Over the past three decades, I have had the chance to go back frequently to my motherland to see my family, friends, and mainland China’s plastic surgery colleagues.I have visited China’s main plastic surgery centers, especially the powerhouse of plastic and reconstructive surgery, the Shanghai Ninth People’s Hospital.I have been deeply impressed by the dynamism and rapid development of plastic and reconstructive surgery in whole mainland China.The high-impact experimental works and a great number of large case series of clinical investigations reported by my mainland China plastic surgery colleagues in the recent decades enjoy international recognition.The great success of the 8th World Congress of the WAPSCD and the joint meeting between the SOFCPRE and the WAPSCD held from the 18th to the 20th 2021 in Paris under my presidency conf irm the above statement.

Elected to serve as an international editorial board member of theCJPRS, I am very conf ident that this new English plastic surgery journal will be recognized quickly by the whole international plastic surgery community as one of the major plastic reconstructive surgery journals of the world.It will be not only a single source for the achievements of mainland China in the f ield of plastic and reconstructive surgery, but also a great forum for plastic surgeons of Chinese descent from mainland China, Hongkong, Taiwan, Singapore, Australia, Europe, North America, and other parts of the world.I congratulate my dear friends Professors Qingfeng Li and Xiaoxi Lin for their vision and leadership by creating this journal and am looking forward to seeing fast development of it in the future.

Enjoy the journal!