Blue Ridge Country - January/February 2016 - 44

on tour as The Siamese Double Boys.
First, however, they were examined by American doctors
(a practice that continued
through the twins' touring
lives, largely to arouse curiosity and prurient interest in
their physical conjoinment,
as well as to certify they were
not imposters). Pronounced
Books and the
Bunkers
If you're interested
in the historical
theories, sociological assertions, or
literary references
to the Bunker
twins, you have
plenty to choose
from. Below is a
selected list of
books, plays, and
sketches about
Chang and Eng
Bunker. Ranging
from the rarified
academic to wildly
satiric, the writing about the twins began during
their lifetimes and continues today.
* Herman Melville made literal references to the
Bunker twins in "The Confidence Man" and "Billy
Budd." According to literary scholar Cynthia Wu,
Melville's "Moby Dick" makes a thinly veiled allusion.
* Mark Twain's "Personal Habits of the Siamese
Twins" appeared in Packard's Monthly in 1869 . A
classic Twain satiric look at the foibles and failures of the American public, "inviting itself to be
read as an allegory between the Northern and
Southern states."
(And Garrison Keillor-who might be Mark Twain
reincarnated-did a "News from Lake Woebe44 BlueRidgeCountry.com

safe for women and children
to peruse "without harm or
offence," they were off to
the races. In no time at all,
Chang and Eng found themselves in Europe, touring the
Continent, received by royalty...and making a tidy sum
for their "managers."
Word is that their early
performances played to stereotype-they
gon" sketch about the Bunker twins. Sadly, there
seems to be no transcript surviving. Maybe Keildressed in Chilor reads BRC and will visit the Bunkers again.)
* Thomas Nast created the political cartoon, "The
nese
costume
American Twins." In it, Labor and Capital are
connected by a band of flesh labeled "The Real
with their hair
Union." Beneath the cartoon runs the tag, "United
We Stand, Divided We Fall."
braided into long
* Irving and Amy Wallace published a biography
pigtails-and inof the twins, "The Two," in 1979.
* A Singapore musical, "Chang and Eng," written
cluded physical
by Ming Wong and directed by Ekachai Uekrongtham, debuted in 1997 and has been perstunts such as
formed around Asia.
* Darin Strauss's "Chang and Eng: A Novel" (2000)
took broad literary license with the facts of the
Bunker twins' lives and minds, and raised a number of Bunker descendant eyebrows.
* "I Dream of Chang and Eng," a 2011 play by Philip
Kan Gotanda, debuted in California.
* Cynthia Wu's "Chang and Eng Reconnected:
The Original Siamese Twins in American Culture"
came out in 2012. Wu takes a literary approach to
the Bunkers, seeing them as clear metaphors for
19th-century America.
* Joseph Orser's "The Lives of Chang and Eng: Siam's Twins in Nineteenth Century America" (2014)
is a readable and meticulously researched biography of the twins and their historical significance.
-JV

Kester Sink's black lab is
named Bunker.

http://www.BlueRidgeCountry.com

Blue Ridge Country - January/February 2016

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