Chang and Eng Bunker, “The Original Siamese Twins”: Living, Dying, and Continuing under the Spectator's Gaze

Abstract

Chang and Eng Bunker were billed in their careers as Original Siamese Twins, because they came from Thailand, previously known as Siam, and were the first conjoined twins to be exhibited for profit in the US as a human oddity (Bogdan 201). What Chang and Eng offered their authences was a marvel of normalcy, marvelous because they seemed to live a relatively life in spite of disability and racial difference - juxtaposing the with the abnormal. The normal body during the nineteenth century in Europe and the US, in contrast to Chang and Eng, was considered to be Caucasian and without any visible physical disability.1 However, despite their physical otherness, throughout their lives, both onstage and off, Chang and Eng sought normalcy in their life styles. Their concept of normalcy developed through their ability to first see themselves as their spectators saw them, and then to change what they could to fit the norm. Before living a normal life, Chang and Eng had to imagine what life in the US looked like: a home, marriage, children, and an occupation. However, as Chang and Eng's lives also included putting themselves on exhibit, a highly abnormal way of life, they developed a performance of normalcy that, ironically, enhanced their value as objects of spectacle. The phenomenon of Chang and Eng as spectacle did not cease even after their deaths, as others have continued to profit from their abnormalities and their normalities, turning Chang and Eng not only into tourist attractions and book subjects but also using them as a literary symbol of unity or, to the contrary, as a symbol of discordant opinions warring within one body. Chang and Eng have appeared in novels and plays up to the present day. At best, literary works give an insight into the complexities of living a life where not only one's own needs and desires must be considered with every movement, breath and daily function but also those of another, attached human being. Chang and Eng did not, at least not in their writings, do much musing on the nature of being conjoined twins. For that sort of introspection, one must turn to fiction writers who have attempted to imagine what Chang and Eng's subjectivity/ies must have been like. However, at the other end of the spectrum, there are those who exploit the differences of Chang and Eng like carnival barkers, speculating about even the most intimate aspects of their lives. This article begins with biographical information on Chang and Eng. Although some of the information from their biographies has no doubt been fictionalized, history serves as a basis for understanding how their lives have been altered or exaggerated in fiction. Then, this work moves on to Chang and Eng as objects of spectacle to understand their appeal and existence as spectacle. Finally, the last section looks at Chang and Eng in literature as authors attempt imaginatively to understand the twins' multiple subjectivity, but also, to varying degrees, continue their exploitation. Historical Background on Chang and Eng Bunker First, what is known historically about Chang and Eng? While not all of the stories told about them can be taken as absolute fact, enough facts are known to be true, or probably true that an overall sense of their lives takes shape. In her biographical account of Chang and Eng, Duet for a Lifetime: The Story of the Original Siamese Twins (1964), Kay Hunter writes in her prologue the following: As you read these words you are alone. You may be on a crowded train, or you may be at the fireside with others in the room, but YOU are an entity... But imagine another YOU-a mirrored image immediately next to you. This person cannot be removed.... He looks over your shoulder as you read or write, he shares your bath and sleeps at your side. There is no chance of keeping any secrets any more, except in the recesses of your mind. You are watched and accompanied-always. (Hunter 9) From the start, Hunter concerns her account with not only the historical facts, stories and physical challenges of living as a conjoined twin but also of the toll such an existence can take on the self. …