Prof. CHEN Xiaoping, a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Director of the Department of Surgery at Tongji Hospital affiliated with Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, has been awarded the title "the Most Beautiful Teacher in Hubei" on the Teacher's Day of 2024. As a educator, he has a strongly faith in medical education. He once said: "As a doctor, I can see up to 20 patients a day at most; if I train 200 students who all become doctors, then 4,000 patients can benefit every day." He was quoted as saying "When your students are everywhere, you are the happiest and richest person in the world."

On September 2, after finishing a surgery that lasted over four hours, Prof. CHEN had no sooner taken off his white coat than he began to prepare for his lectures. He has been working like this for over 30 years. He enjoys stepping into the classroom to lead his students into the mysterious but fascinating world of medicine. In 2020, the course "Surgery" course he led was rated as “the First-class Offline Undergraduate Course at the National Level”.

In his instruction, CHEN Xiaoping's likes using real-life cases and thought-provoking approach to make his students think, thereby helping them understand the complicated surgical procedures and their role in patient management. He often tell engaging stories, such as the historical account of Hua Tuo treating Guan Yu and ancient use of preservatives of corpses, to make the otherwise dry subjects interesting.

In his mind, teaching essentially means to help students to know "how to become a good surgeon." He emphasizes integration of theory with practice, basic knowledge and skills, hands-on experiences, thinking and exploration.

"From Professor CHEN, we have learned not only how to excel in surgery but also how to conduct myself in my personal life and academic career. His class is like a shot in arm, giving me confidence and motivating me." said LI, a medical student who is now an intern in clinical practice.

Dr. CHEN Lin, a liver surgeon at Tongji Hospital and a student of Prof. CHEN Xiaoping, began his graduate program in 2006, has been profoundly influenced by his teacher. Prof. CHEN Xiaoping is known for his mild-mannered humility, yet he is a person of strong conviction and dares to challenge authority. When he was working on his doctorate program, he proposed that large liver cancers could be safely resected, a notion which went against the mainstream view at the time. He observed that resection of a 3-cm liver cancer might involve removal of more healthy liver tissue as compared to a hepatic cancer of over 10 cm. His "CHEN's Hepatic Blood Flow Occlusion Method," "CHEN's Liver Double Suspension Technique," and "CHEN's Non-dissection Hepatic Inflow Occlusion Method" have been seen as breakthroughs  in the field and earned him the nickname of "Dancer on the Blade."

CHEN believes that, as an educator, it is of great importance to nurture students with both medical expertise and a sense of humanity. He often cites the words of his mentor, professor QIU Fazhu, an outstanding surgeon: "A doctor should be morally close to Buddha, and as talented as Asclepius." to encourage students to be professionally perfect and morally straight. As QIU Fazhu's first doctoral student, CHEN mentioned that the influence of his teacher is indelible, and he always remembers three mottoes of his mentor.

The first goes "Be a good doctor." According to Prof. CHEN’s interpretation, to be a good doctor, you should not care about time, money, and temporary gains and losses. The second saying says "Both doctors and patients should be empathetic and think the shoes of the others." The third motto is "Treating a patient is like carrying a child across a river; if you don't get the child to the other side, it's not safe." CHEN believes his teacher wanted to tell us a doctor should have strong sense of commitment and do his utmost in managing his or her patients.

These three mottoes have been serving as guiding compass for Prof. Chen and his students. "I demand of my students the way Prof. Qiu demanded of me." he says. He told his students: "Medicine is more about humanity than about science. Young doctors should care about not only the mastery of theories and skills but also their patients. This is our original intention and great love when we choose to be a doctor."

Over the decades, Prof. CHEN Xiaoping has been dedicated to medical research and education, and has become a role model in the field of medical education in China. He has authored and edited multiple textbooks and reference books, including the "Surgery" for undergraduate programs and the time-honored "HUANG Jia Si's Surgery."

Prof. CHEN has extended this original intention and great love to all parts of this country, and is currently working tirelessly to train grassroots health workers for the national program of "Healthy China."

On August 1, 2017, the Hubei CHEN Xiaoping Science and Technology Development Foundation, chaired by CHEN Xiaoping, was established in Wuhan. The foundation is designed to promote public welfare projects, including training young doctors, providing financial aid to needy medical students, and offering free medical services in rural revitalization. Since 2018, the "CHEN Xiaoping Scholarship Fund" has paid a total of 900,000 RMB yuan to 180 students. The foundation has also held 17 national training workshops for young doctors, trained 230,000 young doctors, conducted over 60 live broadcasts of surgeries, which were viewed by roughly 240,000 visitors. An academician-sponsored learning platform has been created for grassroots medical staff, and it effectively makes high-quality medical technologies more accessible to medical workers at low-level medical facilities.  

In August 2020, the CHEN Xiaoping Health Science Popularization Studio was inaugurated, the first of its kind in the country led by an academician. Under his invitation, 167 well-known experts joined, including a number of academicians. The mission of the studio is to disseminate authoritative health science knowledge to the public through an official website. The program has received a total viewership of about 300 million.

In his more than 40 years of career, Prof. CHEN has trained 163 graduate students. Most of his students are leaders in their respective fields and are contributing to the great program: a healthy China.