John Samuel Yu (; born 12 December 1934) is a Chinese-born Australian paediatrician, hospital administrator, and art collector. He was CEO of the Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children in Sydney from 1979 until 1997, presiding over its move to Westmead. He was named Australian of the Year for 1996.
Early life and education
John Samuel Yu was born in Nanking (now Nanjing, Jiangsu Province), China, on 12 December 1934. He had to be smuggled out of China at the age of two, hidden in a basket under bedclothes. He arrived in Sydney in 1939 with his mother and sister on a passenger ship from Hong Kong, with the family celebrating his third birthday outside Sydney Heads. He was carried ashore by Earle Page, who was a friend of his uncle who was briefly Prime Minister of Australia. His father fled to Taiwan and took a second wife there, legal at the time, and only made contact with his son after John's mother had died.
Career
Yu started work at the Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children in 1961 (later officially called the New Children's Hospital, also known as The Children's Hospital at Westmead), at the age of 27.
Yu retired in 2014. and was promoted to Companion of the Order of Australia in 2001, "For service to the provision and development of 'state of the art' paediatric care and research, to children's rights, to education, and to the decorative and visual arts".
He was named Australian of the Year in 1996, at which point he said "I am proud of my Chinese heritage but even prouder to be an Australian".
He has been awarded several honorary degrees, including Hon. MD (USyd), Hon. DLitt (University of Western Sydney), and Hon. DSc (UNSW).
In 2007, a portrait of Yu and his partner George Soutter by Xu Wang was a finalist for the 2007 Archibald Prize.
He was made a fellow of the Royal Society of New South Wales (FRSN) in 2019. He was also a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians (FRACP); of the Royal Australasian College of Medical Administrators (FRACMA); and of the Australian Academy of the Humanities.
In November 2022 he was invited to give the inaugural Wang Gungwu Lecture at the National Foundation for Australia-China Relations.
Art
Yu's interest in art began as a child and while a student in Sydney, when he developed an interest in 18th century English ceramics. He later started taking an interest in East and Southeast Asian ceramics, and more specifically in decorative arts and textiles in the mid-1970s, after seeing an ikat textile for sale in a Sydney gallery. He believes that art is necessary for a healthy society, and created such an environment at Westmead Hospital.
From 2004, he was chair of VisAsia (the Australian Institute of Asian Culture and Visual Arts), which promotes the appreciation of Asian visual arts and culture.
Yu has published several books and many papers on paediatrics, hospital management, and the decorative arts. (1934–2011). Soutter was born in Gwelo, Southern Rhodesia (now Gweru, Zimbabwe), and in 1959 graduated in medicine from the University of Cape Town, in South Africa, before undertaking further studies in London. After migrating to Australia in the 1960s, he met Yu at the Royal Alexandra Hospital.