AcademicExchange
Carrying the Craft to Bangkok: Feline Total Hip Replacement Keynote at the 17th VPAT Congress
In June 2025, I had the honor of stepping onto the keynote stage in Bangkok at the 17th VPAT (Veterinary Practitioner Association of Thailand) Congress to present our clinical work on Feline Total Hip Replacement (THR). Delivering an extensive keynote entirely in English to hundreds of veterinary surgeons and university professors from across Southeast Asia was a fresh and deeply rewarding milestone. Feline hip arthroplasty is a demanding frontier requiring microscopic precision to match tiny acetabula, stovepipe femurs, and extreme jumping biomechanics. Sharing our biological dual-mobility protocols and long-term recovery data was about more than mechanics—it was about proudly representing the clinical heritage of South China Agricultural University (SCAU) and proving that Chinese veterinary innovation is ready to elevate standards and relieve animal suffering wherever it is needed.
A Grassroots Surgeon Bound for Moscow: April 2023 and the First Keynote by a Chinese Practicing Veterinarian
In the spring of 2023, a long-delayed envelope arrived that marked a quiet historical threshold for Chinese veterinary medicine: an official invitation to deliver a keynote on canine total hip replacement at the Russian International Veterinary Congress in Moscow. The trip had been frozen for two years during the pandemic, but in April 2023, the flight path was cleared. Standing as the first practicing small animal orthopedic clinician from mainland China invited to address their assembly, I packed my slides with one mission: to showcase the raw surgical caliber and objective data of China's frontline practitioners. As for delivering a complex orthopedic lecture entirely in English? I shrugged and laughed: "Giving the talk is my job; whether they can follow my English is entirely their problem!"