Gastrointestinal surgeon Zhou Shuyang became an online celebrity for his medical illustrations thanks to the super-realistic heart he drew in February last year.

Zhou loved painting before studying to become a doctor. However, the medical illustration thing is a total "byproduct." 

"Back in graduate school, a senior school mate had improved a surgical method and was looking for some illustrator to help him explain it in pictures. As he couldn't find the perfect pictures to go with his original concepts, I went to the bookstores for the published illustrations, only to get more confused by their uneven qualities in the domestic market. So I decided to try it myself," he said.

Unexpectedly, his superb graphic illustrations impressed netizens, and the detailed depictions of the human organs and surgical methods were generally applauded by his medical peers. 

As a kind of applied art, medical illustration should be scientifically accurate. It is popular internationally, but most illustrators in the field don't have a medical background. "Many of them take the specimens for references and make modifications on their own. So the pictures can look very different from the real tissues and organs clinically," Zhou explained. 

For instance, for his first operation as a medical student, he couldn't identify the organs in the book. "As a clinical doctor, I can see, touch and feel the real organs every day. I'm capable of showing their features as real as possible to those medical students and young doctors."

The continuous research and practice make Zhou's artworks not only realistic, but also beautiful and lifelike, as he adds his own aesthetic flourishes. The pork belly he drew was so real that it confused his three cats.

That being said, do we really need realistic illustrations, when we already have such advanced photographic technologies? "Realistic as they are, the illustrations are used to explain things, so we usually clear out the unnecessary elements, such as blood and connective tissues," explained Zhou. "Moreover, your vision during an operation is very limited. The pictures could only show parts of the organ, while the illustrations must reveal the whole thing. Sometimes, you have to draw the inner structures."

Zhou hopes that his illustrations can help medical students as well as help popularize science, so that more people can learn medical knowledge in a visual and vivid way. "The medical illustration is more like a responsibility to me," he said. Perhaps, his artworks can truly help improve the communication between doctors and patients.

Director: Liu Yangyang

Editors: Ma Mingyuan, Gao Xingzi

Filmed by Zhang Hao

Designer: Qu Bo

Text by Zhu Siqi

Copy Editors: Nadim Diab, Henry Weimin

Producer: Wen Yaru

Chief Editors: Wang Dongmei, Zhao Jianfu

Supervisor: Pang Xinhua