Anthony P Yim1, Yukun Xie2
1Surgeon-turned-Artist, Minimally Invasive Thoracic Surgery Ltd., Hong Kong, China; 2AME Surgical Journal, AME Publishing Company.
Correspondence to: ASJ Editorial Office, AME Publishing Company. Email: asj@amegroups.com
This interview can be cited as: Yim AP, Xie y. Meeting the Editorial Board Member of ASJ: Dr. Anthony P Yim. AME Surg J. 2026. Available from: https://asj.amegroups.org/post/view/meeting-the-editorial-board-member-of-asj-dr-anthony-p-yim.
Editor’s note
2026 Clinical Research Innovation Forum & Editors-in-Chief Meet-and-Greet is held in Hong Kong, China on 28 March, 2026. The highlights of this year’s forum include clinical innovation, scientific and publishing cooperation, strategic partnerships, etc.
Taking this opportunity, we conducted an interview with Prof. Anthony P Yim, from Minimally Invasive Thoracic Surgery Ltd., Hong Kong, China.
Expert introduction
Dr Anthony Yim is a world pioneer in keyhole surgery of the chest (now known as Video Assisted Thoracic Surgery or VATS) who transformed himself from a surgeon into an artist.
After he graduated with double First Class Honours in Medical Sciences Tripos at Cambridge, he went to Oxford University on an entrance scholarship for clinical training. After graduation from medical school with distinction, he decided to become a cardiothoracic surgeon and was trained at some of the top medical institutions in the world (John Radcliffe and Hartfield Hospitals in UK, University of Chicago Medical Center and Massachusetts General Hospital in USA)
He returned to Hong Kong in 1992 and joined the Department of Surgery as a faculty member at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK). He pioneered the development of keyhole surgery of the chest which earned him a renowned international reputation as a leading surgeon-scientist (with over five hundred original, peer- reviewed publications). He was awarded Doctor of Medicine by Oxford on the strength of his publications in 1998. He became Chair Professor of Surgery at CUHK in 2002. He has served on the editorial boards of over twenty journals including Chest and Annals of Thoracic Surgery. The keyhole technique which he developed and refined has since benefited hundreds of thousands patients worldwide and revolutionised the way chest surgery is practised today.
At the height of his career, however, Anthony was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease and had to give up the surgery he loved. Many people may not be able to adapt to this life change, but not for Anthony. Embracing life challenges with grace, he turned to art and became a highly accomplished artist in just a few years. He published in 2018 an art album, My Second Career by AME of nearly 200 of his paintings. He has had six solo exhibitions, and completed several large commissioned works, some of which are on public display.
He strongly believes that life is how you look at it (“Your Mindset is Your World”). He expressed his life philosophy through his art by using refractive media like mirrors or shiny cards to accentuate the effects of light on color, so that the color of the painting changes with the viewing angle. He is currently working on his second art album, Mindset and Art to be published by AME later this year.
His life story has become an inspiration to many, not to give up in the face of adversity.
Interview
ASJ: Prof. Yim, thank you for your excellent presentation. I think one of the measures of an excellent speech is to tell your genuine stories to the audience. Your talk today is titled “From Scalpel to Paintbrush”. What’s your main motivation for this title?
Prof. Yim: Thank you. “From Scalpel to Paintbrush” is a figurative way to describe my career transformation. However, it does carry a deeper meaning. The main reason why I chose this topic is to share with the audience and readership my experience as a Parkinson's patient, at the height of my surgical career and, more importantly, how l embraced this life challenge and managed to turn it into an opportunity. I hope my experience can help others facing similar adversities to overcome their challenges. If we can do that, we will become much stronger, happier, more grateful and better persons.
ASJ: In your presentation, you discussed both overcoming adversity and your transition from a career in surgery to one in art. Would you mind sharing what prompted this significant change, and why you were drawn specifically to art?
Prof. Yim: Art is something l have had a passion for from an early age. I am blessed to be born with a keen sense of color and space. As you heard in my talk, one key message is Your Mindset is your World; your perspective of the world determines your response to an event which, in turn, would define who you are as a person. In order to cultivate the right mindset, you need some serious soul-searching. Art, due to its ability to express deep emotion through form and color, is my preferred vehicle to take me to my inner world to rediscover myself, and in the process, to formulate a new mindset to cope with an ever changing outside world. It does not have to be art, of course. It could be music, a stroll or meditation, or other mindfulness practices. It is a personal choice.
ASJ: As a pioneer in keyhole chest surgery, do you feel that your experiences in the operating room have influenced your artistic creations today?
Prof. Yim: I think I do have an innovative mindset which followed me from surgery to art. For example, I like exploring new media like sands or broken glass fragments in my creative work. That said, rigid adherence to a surgical mindset could work against you as an artist; as a protocol-like routine is essential to guarantee a consistent, reproducible outcome for surgical patients. This would be diagonally opposite to creative art.
ASJ: Speaking of innovation — and we see so much of it in creative work today — I’ve just been looking through your book My Second Career. On page 75, I noticed several different versions of your bamboo-themed works. Among these, which one is your personal favorite?
Prof. Yim: Art is both personal and subjective, so l would not like ranking my work, let alone ranking others. For the artist and observers alike, looking at the same art piece at different times may elicit different feelings. All I can say is l like every single painting in the book you are holding, as l normally don’t keep paintings l don’t like which fortunately are not that many.
ASJ: Last week in our class on traditional Chinese landscape painting, we were shown two different bamboo paintings. One was by the renowned Chinese painter Zheng Banqiao, and the other by a contemporary artist. As we know, Zheng's work is typically rich in meaning and doesn't focus on precise depiction of bamboo. In contrast, the contemporary piece looks almost like a photograph. In China, we generally value depth over superficial brushstrokes. So, to what extent do you agree with that preference?
Prof. Yim: How we look at art has evolved over time. Before the advent of photography, art was very important as a means of representation. The value of a painting was gauged by its accuracy and fine details. All these changed with modern photography, the role of modern art has shifted from one of representation to one of expression. The value of art likewise, has shifted from one of accuracy and details to its ability to elicit resonance or an emotional response from its viewers. I am aware of Zheng’s accomplished works on bamboo (and orchids) you mentioned. Zheng (1693-1766), like others before him, was a frustrated official in the Qing Dynasty. His elegant paintings represented projections of his unfulfilled high ideals while working for the government. It is imperative that the viewers need to know the background of the artist in order to fully appreciate his/ her work.
ASJ: In such fields as art or humanity, the judging criterion actually varies from person to person. It’s quite different from science or medicine.
Prof. Yim: Yes, absolutely! It is far easier to differentiate good science from bad science (as many of the editors here can tell you) than good art from bad art. Science is based on objective measurements of something tangible, whereas art is based on subjective emotional response which is difficult, if not impossible to quantify.
ASJ: Most people would agree that art is incredibly powerful—whether as a means of expression or a form of healing. And in today's world, the concept of narrative medicine is gaining ground. Essentially, it's about understanding, connecting with, and being moved by medical stories. So, in your view, what kinds of medical stories have the greatest power to touch a broad international audience?
Prof. Yim: I think a powerful story would be a true story narrated by the main character himself or herself. Facing life adversities, like health issues (as in my case) or financial, career or relationship issues are quite common, and what most people can identify with. Along that same line, my new book, Mindset and Art, to be published by AME, will come out later this year and I hope it will help people to cope when they find themselves facing similar life challenges.
ASJ: We can see that genuine medical stories are what truly resonate with people today. Only when they connect with the stories can they find the strength to face an unexpected reality. And as you mentioned in your presentation, weaknesses may turn out to be gifts in disguise. Speaking of something in disguise, the topic that comes to my mind is artificial intelligence (AI). AI is a trending topic in the field of medicine. Many believe that AI technology holds great potential and value for both patients and physicians. But we can also see that AI is now capable of creating artworks—some even better than those made by humans. How do you see the future relationship between art, AI, and medicine? Do you think they are contradictory or interactive?
Prof. Yim: I acknowledge Generative AI is a technological revolution and is going to be an increasingly important part of our daily life. The technology has also played an increasingly essential role in medicine, for example, in breast cancer detection from mammograms, among many others. That said, however, l do have reservations of using AI to create art, as l believe it goes against what art stands for. Art, to me, represents an expression of human experiences. What defines us as human is not our efficiency, but our imperfection. Creative art does not arise from calculation but from human emotion of pain, sorrow, despair, love, gratitude and hope. These emotions make us who we are as human beings.
ASJ: Now one last question, before we wrap up the discussion today. Can you use one word to describe art for us?
Prof. Yim: To me, that word would be “Expression”. However, we must remember art means different things to different people.