As a longtime friend and a frequent visiting professor to Shanghai Ninth People’s Hospital,I am excited to see the inauguration of theChinese Journal of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery (CJPRS).The journal,published in English,will serve a forum that plastic surgery colleagues from all over the world can directly follow and learn remarkable achievements in reconstructive and aesthetic plastic surgery from Chinese plastic surgeons.The journal itself will serve as a single source for many achievements made by our Chinese colleagues in the field of reconstructive and aesthetic plastic surgery.

The whole world of academic plastic surgery knows that Shanghai Ninth People’s Hospital is another powerhouse in plastic surgery.The Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery has more than seventy attending faculty surgeons and a few hundred graduate students and post-doctoral fellows.The plastic surgeons at the Shanghai Ninth People’s Hospital perform over 100,000 reconstructive and aesthetic surgery cases per year.Their department has ranked #1 in mainland China for 10 consecutive years.They have also published extensively in some of the best English journals in plastic surgery such asPlastic and Reconstructive Surgery (PRS),Journal of Plastic,Reconstructive,and Aesthetic Surgery (JPRAS),Annals of Plastic Surgery,Aesthetic Surgery Journal (ASJ),and Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (APS).

I have been practicing,as an academic plastic surgeon,in the United States for more than 20 years and as a full Professor of Plastic Surgery for more than 14 years.I have served as an associate editor for PRS for nine years.Currently I serve as a clinical editor forAesthetic Surgery Journaland the Associate Editor forAesthetic Plastic Surgery.I have also served as an editorial board member for many surgical journals includingAnnals of Plastic Surgery.I have personally reviewed many submissions from China especially from Shanghai Ninth People’s Hospitals for those journals.Their high impact experimental works and large case series of clinical investigations have always impressed me.I enjoy reading those articles and learning from my friends and colleagues at Shanghai Ninth People’s Hospital.

Contributions to the scientific world of plastic surgery from China have always been unique.Very open their clinical investigations would involve incredibly large case series and laboratory investigations are from several well-funded centers of plastic surgery in China.Because of their unique graduate school system for plastic surgery trainees,many young plastic surgeons have done incredible amount of work with high quality of original investigations in plastic and reconstructive surgery.With inauguration of an English journal in plastic surgery likeCJPRS,many of their excellent works can be published earlier and presented in English language other than their home language.I anticipate the journal will be quickly be indexed and has its own impact factor.

I am honored to be elected to serve as an international editorial board member ofCJPRS.I believe the journal has its unique value and will serve as a forum for more effective scientific exchange between China and the rest of the world.It can also serve as a unique forum for plastic surgeons of Chinese descent not only from mainland China,Hong Kong,Taiwan,and Singapore but also from North America,Europe,and other parts of the world.I congratulate the Editorin-Chief Dr.Li Qingfeng and Executive Editor Dr.Lin Xiaoxi for their vision and leadership to create a new English journal for Chinese or Chinese descent plastic surgeons.I am very confident that the journal will soon be recognized widely by the international plastic surgery community and serve as an excellent forum so that new innovations and discoveries in plastic surgery from China can be recognized and learned by their international plastic surgery colleagues.I certainly anticipate and look forward to seeing fast development of the journal in the years to come.