Masked Hero: How Wu Lien-Teh Invented the Mask

An inspiring picture book biography celebrating Dr Wu Lien-teh, the unknown hero who, over a hundred years ago, created the N95 mask, which continues to save lives today.

Growing up in Malaysia, Wu Lien-teh had always loved science and wanted to be a doctor. His studies took him around the world and in 1910 he brought his expertise to China to fight the plague. There he overcame discrimination to promote trailblazing measures that will be familiar to readers today – including encouraging people to wear a face covering he designed from layers of cloth and gauze: the first version of the N95 mask.

Written by Wu Lien-teh’s great-granddaughter, who is now an ER doctor who relied on his life-saving invention during a pandemic a century later, and charmingly illustrated by Lisa Wee, this is an inspiring and fascinating biography about an unknown hero of science.