Trust me, I’m a clown doctor: young Chinese patients are getting a taste of Western ‘alternative medicine’

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Wearing a round, red plastic nose, a colourful suit, and sometimes an outrageous wig, Song Longchao is affectionately referred to as “clown brother” by his young patients.

As a nurse at the children’s surgery department of Sichuan Provincial People’s Hospital in Chengdu, Song, 29, has spent much of his spare time in the past four years playing the fool in the hope of bringing joy and laughter to everyone on the wards.