HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Dr. Woffles Wu Tze Liang (; born 1960), , is a Singaporean
plastic surgeon Plastic surgery is a surgical specialty involving the restoration, reconstruction or alteration of the human body. It can be divided into two main categories: reconstructive surgery and cosmetic surgery. Reconstructive surgery includes craniof ...
.Well-known plastic surgeon to appear in court next month
AsiaOne. Retrieved 24 May 2012


Early life

Wu was born in Singapore but he grew up in London, UK His mother, a beautician who later became a lawyer, affectionately nicknamed him "Woffles", after a rabbit from the novel '' The Magic Faraway Tree'' by
Enid Blyton Enid Mary Blyton (11 August 1897 – 28 November 1968) was an English children's writer, whose books have been worldwide bestsellers since the 1930s, selling more than 600 million copies. Her books are still enormously popular and have be ...
, and he grew to accept this nickname. In his childhood, he helped his mother with
manicure A manicure is a mostly cosmetic beauty treatment for the fingernails and hands performed at home or in a nail salon. A manicure usually consists of filing and shaping the ''free edge'' of nails, pushing and clipping (with a cuticle pusher ...
s,
pedicure A pedicure is a cosmetic treatment of the feet and toenails, analogous to a manicure. Pedicures include care not only for the toenails; dead skin cells are rubbed off the bottom of the feet using a rough stone (often a pumice stone). Skincare ...
s and make-up application. At the age of 12, Wu returned to Singapore and attended Saint Andrew's School. He just passed the
Primary School Leaving Examination The Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) (Malay: ''Peperiksaan Tamat Sekolah Rendah'', Simplified Chinese: 小学离校考试 x''iǎoxué lí xiào kǎoshì'') is a national examination in Singapore that is administered by the Ministry of Ed ...
(PSLE) and barely scraped through the
Singapore-Cambridge GCE Ordinary Level The Singapore-Cambridge General Certificate of Education Ordinary Level (or Singapore-Cambridge GCE O-Level) is a GCE Ordinary Level examination held annually in Singapore and is jointly conducted by the Ministry of Education (MOE), Singapore Exam ...
examinations because he nearly failed his second language. Wu served compulsory military service (
National Service National service is the system of voluntary government service, usually military service. Conscription is mandatory national service. The term ''national service'' comes from the United Kingdom's National Service (Armed Forces) Act 1939. The l ...
) from December 1978 to July 1987, disrupting for six years in between to study medicine. He was a medical officer in the 3rd Division of the
Singapore Army The Singapore Army is the land service branch of the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF). The largest of the four branches of the SAF, the Singapore Army traces its origins to the 1st Battalion, Singapore Infantry Regiment (1 SIR), which was formed i ...
and held the rank of
Captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...
.


Career

Wu obtained his
MBBS Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery ( la, Medicinae Baccalaureus, Baccalaureus Chirurgiae; abbreviated most commonly MBBS), is the primary medical degree awarded by medical schools in countries that follow the tradition of the United King ...
degree from the
National University of Singapore The National University of Singapore (NUS) is a national public research university in Singapore. Founded in 1905 as the Straits Settlements and Federated Malay States Government Medical School, NUS is the oldest autonomous university in the c ...
(NUS) in the 1980s while working on
paediatrics Pediatrics ( also spelled ''paediatrics'' or ''pædiatrics'') is the branch of medicine that involves the medical care of infants, children, adolescents, and young adults. In the United Kingdom, paediatrics covers many of their youth until the ...
at the Toa Payoh Hospital (now part of the
Changi General Hospital Changi General Hospital (abbreviation: CGH) is a 1000-bed hospital located in Simei, eastern Singapore. It is Singapore's first purpose-built general hospital to serve communities in the east and north-east regions. The hospital has more than 23 ...
). He moved to the
Singapore General Hospital Singapore General Hospital (SGH) is an academic health science centre and tertiary referral hospital in Singapore. It is located next to the Bukit Merah and Chinatown districts of the Central Region, close to the Outram Community Hospital (OCH ...
in 1989 and worked as a plastic surgeon for 12 years before setting up his own private practice at
Camden Medical Centre Camden Medical is a private medical centre in Singapore. It was established in 1999 and is located at One Orchard Boulevard near the Tanglin and Orchard Road area next to Orchard Boulevard MRT station. Developed by the Kwee brothers, the 17-sto ...
in Singapore. Wu is also a Fellow of the
Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh (RCSEd) is a professional organisation of surgeons. The College has seven active faculties, covering a broad spectrum of surgical, dental, and other medical practices. Its main campus is located on ...
and the
Academy of Medicine, Singapore The Academy of Medicine, Singapore (AMS), is a professional and educational organisation for doctors and dentists in Singapore. Background The Academy of Medicine, Singapore, was founded in 1957 and served both Singapore and Malaysia until the ...
. In 1987, he worked under his mentor and friend, Prof. ST Lee, a
cleft palate A cleft lip contains an opening in the upper lip that may extend into the nose. The opening may be on one side, both sides, or in the middle. A cleft palate occurs when the palate (the roof of the mouth) contains an opening into the nose. The te ...
surgeon. Three years later, Wu won the Young Surgeon of the Year Award for his research on nasal anatomy. In the same year, he was awarded the SEAMIC scholarship that allowed him to visit and study under other reconstructive and aesthetic surgeons in Thailand, the Philippines and Japan. Wu is known for reinventing and promoting the concept of Non Surgical Facial Rejuvenation (NSFR), through a combination of
BOTOX Botulinum toxin, or botulinum neurotoxin (BoNT), is a neurotoxic protein produced by the bacterium ''Clostridium botulinum'' and related species. It prevents the release of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine from axon endings at the neurom ...
, fillers, IPL photorejuvenation, and his personal invention, the 'Woffles Lift'. He is also an advanced BOTOX trainer in the Asia Pacific region and is constantly training physicians worldwide on his techniques. Wu has also refined the art of
breast augmentation Breast augmentation and augmentation mammoplasty is a cosmetic surgery technique using breast-implants and fat-graft mammoplasty techniques to increase the size, change the shape, and alter the texture of the breasts. Augmentation mammoplasty is ...
surgery by introducing a technique, developed by him, called the 'WW Stealth (Invisible) Incision'.


Other interests

Apart from his medical career, Wu has also appeared many times on Singaporean television sitcoms and dramas. He was a co-producer of the 2006 Singaporean film ''
Singapore Dreaming ''Singapore Dreaming'' is a 2006 Singaporean drama film. It follows the Loh family, a typical Singaporean working-class family, through their aspirations and dreams for a better and affluent life and the reality that would make it difficult for ...
''. Wu's other hobbies include sports and the arts. He was a national level ten-pin bowler in his teenage years before switching to
billiards Cue sports are a wide variety of games of skill played with a cue, which is used to strike billiard balls and thereby cause them to move around a cloth-covered table bounded by elastic bumpers known as . There are three major subdivisions of ...
and
snooker Snooker (pronounced , ) is a cue sports, cue sport played on a Billiard table#Snooker and English billiards tables, rectangular table covered with a green cloth called baize, with six Billiard table#Pockets 2, pockets, one at each corner and o ...
, where he represented Singapore on an international level between 1984 and 1988. He is also interested in painting and sculpting, inspired by his grandfather, who was a Chinese painter. He collects Chinese pop art, such as paintings of
Mao Zedong Mao Zedong pronounced ; also romanised traditionally as Mao Tse-tung. (26 December 1893 – 9 September 1976), also known as Chairman Mao, was a Chinese communist revolutionary who was the founder of the People's Republic of China (PRC) ...
. He has also exhibited his style of psychoerotic paintings in Taiwan and Singapore, and has used his art to raise money for charity. Wu also does volunteer work, repairing cleft lips in Myanmar, Java and West Timor.


Personal life

Wu is married and has a son and a daughter. He lives in
Bishan Bishan most commonly refers to Bishan, Singapore, a residential town in Singapore's Central Region, and its associated places. Bishan may also refer to: Places Singapore * Bishan, Singapore ** Bishan MRT station, a MRT interchange station along t ...
with his wife and his daughter in a rented house, two doors away from a four-bedroom bungalow (his mother, his son and a maid live there), where his family have been living since 1951. Wu is a maternal nephew of
Ong Teng Cheong Ong Teng Cheong ( zh, c=王鼎昌, p=Wáng Dǐngchāng; 22 January 1936 – 8 February 2002) was a Singaporean politician who served as the fifth president of Singapore between 1993 and 1999. He was also the first elected president in Singapor ...
, the fifth
President of Singapore The president of Singapore is the head of state of the Singapore, Republic of Singapore. The role of the president is to safeguard the Reserves of the Government of Singapore, reserves and the integrity of the Singapore Civil Service, public serv ...
. His cousin, Karen Woo, a British physician and aid worker, was killed by
Taliban The Taliban (; ps, طالبان, ṭālibān, lit=students or 'seekers'), which also refers to itself by its state (polity), state name, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a Deobandi Islamic fundamentalism, Islamic fundamentalist, m ...
gunmen in Afghanistan in August 2010. Wu also counts Tina Tan-Leo, the founder of the fashion label Alldressedup and director and shareholder of Fashion International, as his cousin. His friends include musician
Dick Lee Richard Lee Peng Boon (born 24 August 1956) is a Singaporean singer-songwriter, playwright and film director. Early life Lee was born to a Peranakan father, Lee Kip Lee, (who wrote for ''The Straits Times'') and his wife , Elizabeth Tan. He was th ...
and theatre director and filmmaker
Glen Goei Glen Goei (; born 22 December 1962) is one of Singapore's leading film and theatre directors. His broad ranging body of work embraces the full gamut of the performing and visual arts and includes film, theatre, musicals, large scale shows, Wor ...
.


Speeding offence incident

In November 2006, Wu's car was involved in a speeding offence, travelling at more than 90 km/h on a road where the speed limit was 60 km/h. He was charged with abetting another person in providing misleading information to the police about who was driving the car at that time. In June 2012, he was fined S$1,000. The charge and sentence were the subject of some public discussion. The Attorney General's Chambers explained that both were in accordance with the law. In addition, Wu's medical license was suspended for 4 months in early 2014.


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wu, Woffles 1960 births Living people National University of Singapore alumni Singaporean people of Chinese descent Singaporean plastic surgeons Singaporean art patrons Singaporean film producers