Chang and Eng Bunker

Entertainers and entrepreneurs

• Born: May 11, 1811
• Place of Birth: central Siam (now Thailand)
• Died: January 17, 1874
• Place of Death: Mount Airy, North Carolina

Born conjoined twins, Chang and Eng Bunker were exhibited throughout the Western world as human oddities. The two brothers used their intelligence and business savvy to become successful entrepreneurs and farmers.

Areas of achievement: Entertainment, entrepreneurship

Early Life

Chang and Eng Bunker were born conjoined twins in a small village along the Mae Klong River in central Siam on May 11, 1811. Their father was a fisherman of Chinese descent. Their mother, who was of Chinese-Malaysian descent, sold food and other items to travelers along the river. The twins were connected, abdomen to abdomen, by a thick band of tissue. This intimate bond would be a lifelong source of fame and frustration for the twins. In their earliest infancy, it was almost the cause of their deaths because their parents were encouraged to separate the two with a knife or a strong wire. Fortunately for them, this course of action was rejected because simply cutting the tissue would have probably resulted in a deadly infection.

Chang and Eng’s childhood was relatively normal, given their shared anatomy. Like other children, they learned to walk, run, and swim. As they grew older, the tissue binding them stretched with continued physical activity, enabling the two to stand almost shoulder to shoulder when they were children.

In 1819, the twins’ father and five siblings died in a cholera epidemic. To help their mother, Chang and Eng began working. By age ten, they had made enough money catching and selling fish to buy their own boat. Before they were fifteen, Chang and Eng were well known up and down the Mae Klong River. The twins often sold food for trade goods, which they then resold either in their village or to traveling merchants. Their physical connection made them memorable to travelers, and their business sense helped pay the family’s bills.

Life’s Work

In 1825, the Bunker twins were invited by the king of Siam to his court. Jessadabodindra, the country’s newly-crowned king, was just as curious about the twins as his subjects were. During this visit, the boys impressed the court with their dignified manner and charisma. The twins had become used to being stared at and equally used to answering questions that were prying, even offensive.

At about the same time, the twins met several merchants who became interested in taking them to see the Western world. Eventually, an American sea captain named Abel Coffin persuaded the king and the twins’ mother to let them travel.

The Bunker twins undoubtedly experienced bewilderment during their first tour of American and British cities. Their English was limited, and the promoter, who had been hired to sell tickets for their appearances, first publicized them as monsters. In fact, before their first appearance in Boston, Massachusetts, they were taken to a prominent physician, whose examination was then publicized both to increase ticket sales and to prevent accusations of fraud.

Although it is unclear whose decision it was, the twins were encouraged to perform before their first appearance in Massachusetts. The twins found themselves answering questions from the audience in addition to providing demonstrations of their flexibility and strength. As they became more familiar with English, they began answering more questions and giving lectures about their lives.

The Bunker twins became almost instant celebrities. Yet in their private lives, the two were often ambivalent about their connection. Several times in the course of their lives, they sought out medical advice on the feasibility of surgical separation. Medical opinion of the time was divided on the subject. While many physicians stated that they believed the twins could be separated, no physician was willing to risk doing the actual operation.

As their fame grew, the Bunker twins developed their show-business savvy. Their first contracts with management were extremely one-sided. Although they were initially paid about ten to fifteen dollars per month, their earnings increased to approximately one thousand dollars per month. In addition to revenue from ticket sales, the managers also received income from the sale of pamphlets and other souvenirs. A glaring example of the exploitation they faced was the disparity in the quality of accommodations on the ship between North America and Great Britain. For almost a month, their managers ate at the captain’s table and slept in first-class cabins, while the twins lived in steerage below deck.

In 1832, when they reached the age of twenty-one, the Bunkers became free of contractual obligations to Coffin and their other managers, and they decided to strike out on their own. For the next seven years, they toured North America, crisscrossing the United States and visiting the Caribbean. Although their management changed, they adopted many of the promotional techniques used on their early tours.

The twins often formed deep friendships while touring. Their friendship with Dr. James Calloway provided a significant change in direction in the twins’ lives. In the late 1830s, tiring of constantly touring, they were invited by Calloway to rural North Carolina for a vacation. According to their biographers, they loved the hilly, sparsely populated western piedmont region of North Carolina.

Within a few years, the Bunkers had met and married sisters Adelaide and Sarah Yates. The twins were accustomed to sharing the most intimate experiences of life, and they reasoned that if they were to marry, it would likely be to two sisters who might also be able to cope with the predictable stress of sharing the same house and bed. For nine years, the four young people lived together, and for most of that time, the two sisters were almost constantly pregnant. With growing families, the twins eventually bought separate homes, alternately spending three days with one wife in one house and then three in the other. As they had split their household, the twins also split their possessions; Eng retained ownership of most of their slaves, and Chang kept most of their acreage.

Given their affiliation with North Carolina and slavery, it is not surprising that the twins supported the Confederacy during the Civil War. In fact, both had sons who fought for the South during the conflict. When the war ended and emancipation was enforced in North Carolina, Eng’s finances were ruined. In contrast, Chang and his family experienced less economic difficulty.

The financial pressures they experienced as a result of the Civil War dogged the Bunker twins for the rest of their lives. In 1868, they contracted with Phineas T. Barnum, the famous circus promoter, for a lengthy European tour. Although it was a financial success, the twins were disappointed that even the most advanced European doctors would not risk undertaking a surgical separation. Chang had a stroke in January 1874, which left him considerably weaker and probably contributed to his death. He died in his sleep on January 17; Eng died a few hours later.

Significance

The Bunker twins gave rise to the term “Siamese twins.” They demonstrated considerable business savvy as merchants, farmers, and promoters. Despite the financial exploitation and humiliations they endured at the hands of their early managers, the twins changed their reputation from freaks to mannered gentlemen within a few years, largely through their own efforts both onstage and in public. Besides becoming wealthy landowners, the twins were able to gain acceptance in the United States, winning the love and devotion of two women and their more than twenty children. For many years, the Bunker twins held the world's record for the longest-lived conjoined twins until that record was later claimed by Ronnie and Donnie Gaylon, who died at the age of sixty-eight in 2020.

Bibliography

Atwal, Sanj. "The Dark History of the Original Siamese Twins, Chang and Eng Bunker." Guiness World Records, 22 Dec. 2022, www.guinnessworldrecords.com/news/2022/12/the-dark-history-of-the-original-siamese-twins-chang-and-eng-bunker-730957. Accessed 20 Aug. 2024.

Collins, David. Eng and Chang: The Original Siamese Twins. New York: Dillion, 1994. Print.

Slouka, Mark. God’s Fool. New York: Knopf, 2002. Print.

Strauss, Darin. Chang and Eng: A Novel. New York: Plume, 2001. Print.

Wallace, Irving, and Amy Wallace. The Two: A Biography of the Original Siamese Twins. New York: Simon, 1978. Print.