Janez Janež

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Janez Janež (January 14, 1913 – October 11, 1990) was a Slovenian doctor and surgeon who spent most of his life in China and Taiwan. In China he was known as Fan Fenglong, or simply Doctor Fan.

Early life and education
Janež was born in Dolsko near Ljubljana, Slovenia. His parents were Ana and Franc Janež, and he had several siblings. He studied medicine in Ljubljana, Zagreb, and Graz, earning his medical doctorate in 1937. He trained further in Belgrade and Vienna and began working as a surgeon in Ljubljana in 1937.

World War II and aftermath
He practiced medicine during World War II but was not involved in fighting. After the war, Yugoslav authorities accused him of collaboration and placed him on a death-sentence list. He fled to a refugee camp in Austria. When British forces attempted to repatriate refugees, he escaped again, narrowly avoiding a fate that many others suffered at Kočevje Rog.

China years
In 1947 he went to Rome, where a priest suggested he go to China to help Italian missionaries. He became a lay missionary and, after a brief stop in Buenos Aires, arrived in China in 1948. He worked as a doctor in Zhaotong, Yunnan, at a hospital run by Italian Camillians and Slovenian nuns. He organized staff training, bought modern equipment, and learned Chinese to communicate with patients.

Arrest and exile to Taiwan
In 1952 the communist authorities arrested the hospital staff and sentenced him to death, later changed to expulsion. He moved to Taiwan, settling in Luodong, Yilan County, where there was a great need for medical care. The Camillian monks built a small clinic there into a modern hospital, St. Mary’s Hospital, where Janež lived and worked for 38 years, often performing many surgeries each day. He refused wages, asking only for a modest apartment, food, and a little money for himself.

Death and recognition
Janež died on October 11, 1990, and was buried in Luodong on October 19. Taiwanese authorities awarded him the Good Man medal for his lifelong service. In 2007, the Dr. Fan Fenglong Memorial Center was opened in Luodong in his honor.