Fifth Freak: Siamese Twins

Welcome to our new blogpost!

Hope you all had a mealicious thanksgiving, we sure did! As some of you may know, the giving just doesn't end with thanksgiving, it goes on till the end of the year. This post focuses on a particular event that comes right after thanksgiving, known as #GivingTuesday. What can be a better way to introduce our fifth and final freaks Chang and Eng Bunker, the conjoined twin brothers, than this giving day. As the saying goes, "two is better than one", and surely Chang and Eng top that dynamic duo list!

The twins are famously known by a self given stage name "Siamese Twins". The Siamese twins were themselves quite caring and offered the gift of compassion throughout their lifetime, housing up to twenty-one children most of whom accompanied them on their tours, making them a great topic for this Giving Tuesday. 

What makes the twins remarkable, other than their talents, is that they lived a long life, and that according to research most conjoined twins do not live that long. They originally came from Thailand to USA in 1827. They performed in circus-like shows for a few years after being sold as slaves, where they performed various acts such as backflips, somersaults, playing chest and other acts. But they figured out rather quickly that with all the racial injustice they had to face, they did not want to live the circus life. In fact, it is said that the image of the conjoined twins was very frowned upon and even a woman from Kentucky who supposedly gave birth to still-born conjoined twins claimed she had seen numerous representations of the twins in newspaper advertisements around the time she conceived her children. Thus, the twins wanted to settle down and try to live as “normal” of lives as they possibly could while helping to give back to the community.

After the twins made plenty of money and spent years as circus performers, they were awarded full US citizenship and in 1839, bought an 110-acre farm in North Carolina, with the intention to live a normal life, or as much normal as they could (Chalakoski). After three years, both twins got married to the sisters Adelaide Yates and Sarah Ann. Together they had 22 children – Eng hand 12 and Chang had 10. Although both Siamese twins gave the gift of life to numerous children, after the American Civil War, the Confederacy eventually ended the wealth and fortune for the Siamese twins. They were forced back into the circus life and were not necessarily greeted with open arms – they were viewed as grumpy old creatures. Despite their hardships, the twins remained humble and never stopped giving back to help people around them.

In 1874, Cheng had suffered a stroke while sleeping and when Eng woke up to see his brother had passed, he died three hours later. Although the inseparable duo had to live a conjoined life and grow into two completely different people, they still found a way to live with each other in unity and give it their best shot to live their life full of love and compassion. 

Let's all take out a moment to honor Chang and Eng's perseverance to give back to the society no matter how hard their lives were. If you want to be a part of the movement or simply learn about #GivingTuesday, then please click on the link below:

https://www.givingtuesday.org/