Book Review: Rehabilitation: A Life's Work
Reviewed by Barbara Duncan
Rehabilitation: A Life's Work
By Harry Fang Sinyang
Published 2002 by Hong Kong University Press, (ISBN 962 209 596 8)
online orders available at www.hkupress.org
This modest but slightly misleading title of Prof. Sir Harry Fang's autobiography might suggest we are about to be edified about what rehabilitation is and how it is practiced by the master class of doctors who specialize in it. Not really, although there is a bit of that by the man who Asia refers to as "Mr. Rehabilitation."
There was an Academy Award winning film in the late 1950s called "Around the world in 80 days," (about to be remade by Jackie Chan) and it earned international affection for its cameos of various cultures and celebrities, as well as the urbane wit of its lead, David Niven. This book could have been subtitled: "Around the world in 80 years" and has a similar unaffected, insightful, wise and humorous worldview, reflecting on both human strengths and frailties of us all.
There are many sides to Dr. Fang and this book does justice to them all: the inventive orthopedic surgeon, astute politician, brave reformer, persistent suitor, loving father, unparalleled fundraiser, shrewd racehorse owner, reluctant hotelier and skilled storyteller. In addition, this slim volume manages to capture the highlights of Hong Kong's rise from a sleepy colonial outpost to an international presence in world trade and politics, roughly paralleling the arc of Harry Fang's life and career.
Those who know Dr. Fang will not be surprised to learn that his father was one of China's legendary generals in the early 1900s, helping Dr. Sun Yat-Sen to overthrow the last of the Qing emperors. Those who don't know him and those who do will be fascinated to read these and other stories of how "Hairy Number Four" grows into Prof. Sir Harry S.Y. Fang, who has contributed so much to Hong Kong, China, the growth of disability services, sports and research in Asia and the Pacific, and to the growth and sustenance of RI.
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