With a height of 2.36 meters, the low-lying life of the giant Bao Xishun

True Story Plan

2024-04-25 17:38Published in Beijing, creators in the field of documentary

Bao Xishun, who is 2.36 meters tall, was once the world's first naturally grown tall person and was called a "giant".

Born in the closed era, Bao Xishun, who was huge in size, was weak and weak due to poverty and malnutrition, and was once regarded as an outlier and a "monster". After the reform and opening up, he was invited to be exhibited at home and abroad as a physical wonder, so as to obtain survival resources.

The tide of the times comes and goes, and the big and powerless "giants" are always involuntarily. It wasn't until the age of 56 that Bao Xishun met his wife and started his own family.

Today, the "giant" is over 70 years old. In his later years, in an era of advocating diversity, Bao Xishun, who had been floating for more than half a century, was finally accepted and lived the precious life as an ordinary person that he had always longed for.

stare

Seeing Bao Xishun for the first time, Xia Shujuan also paid attention to him like everyone else. Xia Shujuan is 168 centimeters tall, which is not short, but standing next to Bao Xishun, who is 2.36 meters, the top of her skull can only reach the crook of his elbow. When the two of them stood too close, she had to take a step back to see his face. When she looks at his face, she sees the ceiling first.

Just after the turn of the millennium, in a late winter in Chifeng City, Inner Mongolia, Xia Shujuan met Bao Xishun at a restaurant through a friend's introduction. She has been in love twice before, and she has been on a lot of kisses, but she feels that the other party is not mature enough to "live a down-to-earth life".

Xia Shujuan, born in 1979, is a capable woman, opened a clothing store after graduating from junior high school, and later worked as a shopping guide in a shopping plaza in Chifeng City. Sticking to her own mate selection standards, Xia Shujuan reached the age of 28 in a blink of an eye. At the beginning of this century, when the age of first marriage was low, this was the age at which the "leftover woman" would be called.

Hearing that her friend was going to introduce Bao Xishun to herself this time, she felt uncomfortable at first, "Although I'm a little older, you can't introduce me to an 'elderly monster', right?"

In Chifeng, Inner Mongolia, everyone knows that Bao Xishun is not an ordinary person. Xia Shujuan has seen him on TV shows. His hands are as big as a fan, his feet are 38cm long, it takes five meters of cloth to make a dress, his legs are 1.5 meters long, and he is nearly 2 meters tall when he sits down. After the host finished the introduction, he took Bao Xishun's hand and compared it with his own hand. A visual effect highlighting the gap appeared on the screen, and the audience erupted in exclamation. The twofold gap shows the "giant" of the "giant".

Figure | Bao Xishun in the crowd

In 2005, Bao Xishun was certified by the Guinness Book of Men with a score of 0.0011 meters higher than a Tunisian, becoming the "world's tallest person in health".

His height is 2.3611 meters. At this height, it is flush with the roof of a bus shelter at a general bus stop. In and out of most buildings, he needs to be nearly 60 degrees at the waist to get through doors that are always 30 cm lower than him. During a meal on a show, the organizers forgot to prepare a table for him that matched his height, and Bao Xishun curled up his body vigorously and buried his head in the bowl in a manner that almost kowtowed.

Sitting in front of Xia Shujuan, because the chair was too small, Bao Xishun, who was on a blind date, shrank his shoulders and limbs, looking particularly cramped. Xia Shujuan found that Bao Xishun would be shy and blush in front of her. Unlike on TV, this "giant", who she once thought was mostly withdrawn and eccentric, is actually introverted and gentle, and seems cute.

He barely dared to look her in the eye. Xia Shujuan looked at him directly, and saw this long face, like a dough cake stretched from the upper and lower ends, with a long nose bridge around the right and left, sprinkled with eyes the size of two raisins that escaped her gaze, and a narrow mouth spitting out words that were not very clear and had an Inner Mongolian accent. The 56-year-old "giant" looks funny, but her hair is jet black, she looks clean and young, and she is not as old as she imagined.

Before coming, Xia Shujuan was originally wary and curious. She thought that even if she didn't like it, she would not suffer if she took a look at the legendary "giant" and went back. She didn't expect that the atmosphere of the restaurant was a little ambiguous because of the shyness of the giant. Both of them were born in rural areas, dropped out of primary and secondary schools to work, and their parents were farmers, so they had a common topic. And Bao Xishun's thoughts are the same as hers, they all want to find an "ordinary person" and live a down-to-earth life together.

For a few moments, Xia Shujuan forgot his height and age, and also forgot the identity and estrangement of the "giant", and only regarded him as an ordinary person. The two of them made eye contact.

After returning home, Xia Shujuan searched the Internet for everything about Bao Xishun and saw a scene from two months ago. Bao Xishun was half naked, gritted his teeth, closed his eyes, and put his arms into the mouth of the fanged dolphin.

Figure | Bao Xishun saves the dolphins

This is the news on December 13, 2006, Bao Xishun received a distress call, went to the Fushun Polar Aquarium in Liaoning Province, and used his slender arm to take out the rubber ball that the dolphin had accidentally swallowed into the stomach. Before Bao Xishun arrived, the hospital and the aquarium had already thought of various plans, but in addition to using his hands, the rest of the equipment would cause irreversible damage to the dolphins. Someone thought of Bao Xishun. The ball is 1.05 meters away from the dolphin's mouth, and the arm of the "giant" Bao Xishun is exactly 1.06 meters.

Two hours later, the rescue was successful. The cameras that had been waiting for a long time in all directions were aimed at Bao Xishun flickering wildly, and the applause was like thunder. Xia Shujuan saw that Bao Xishun's arms were covered with fang-scratching scars, and the dolphin's gastric juice burned them to a slight redness. She couldn't hold back her tears.

A month after this meeting, Bao Xishun and Xia Shujuan got married. Xia Shujuan moved into Bao Xishun's house to live together. In October 2008, Xia Shujuan gave birth to a baby boy, and Bao Xishun named him Tianyou.

Born and raised in a closed era, Bao Xishun was huge but weak and weak due to poverty and malnutrition, and was once regarded as an alien and "monster" by his surroundings. After the reform and opening up, Bao Xishun was regarded as a physical wonder and was invited to exhibit at home and abroad in order to obtain survival resources.

The tide of the times comes and goes, and Bao Xishun, who is big and powerless, has always been involuntarily. It wasn't until he was 56 years old, when he met his wife and started his own family, that the giant finally gained social acceptance and had the ordinary life he always longed for.

The former "world's first giant" is now over the age of 16, and the child Tianyou has grown to 16 years old. At present, short videos are hot, and some institutions have found Bao Xishun to shoot a video of "giant" bringing goods and posted it on the Internet. These videos, the couple never cared about and never watched. Since he mainly studied Mongolian in primary school, Bao Xishun didn't know most Chinese characters and couldn't read comments. There aren't many comments on Bao Xishun's video. He is introverted, uncoordinated, and especially afraid of the camera.

After living together for nearly 20 years, his wife Xia Shujuan knew that what Bao Xishun was afraid of was not the camera, but the gaze that stared at him behind the camera. From leaving the grassland in 2004 when he was first reported by the media, to shooting short videos for agents or taking photos of products today, Bao Xishun rarely looks at the camera and laughs.

Even on July 21, 2005 — the day most media outlets saw the pinnacle of Bao's life, when he was certified as the "world's tallest person in health" — Mr. Bao, who wore a black suit and held a Guinness Book of Records certificate framed with dark mahogany on his slender fingers, did not smile. His lips were book-like.

Figure | Bao Xishun received the Guinness certificate

Soon after the video began filming, the agent gave up on letting Bao Xishun interact with the camera. Most of the time, the "giant" is only used as a backdrop, standing farthest from the camera to wipe the ceiling, showing his superior height, and in the center of the shot is a young man and woman dancing. Bao Xishun doesn't care about anything, "I'll do whatever I want." There is only one thing that is important to him: making these videos can bring him more than 2,000 yuan a month, which can subsidize his children's tuition fees.

Children are the most important topic for this family. Xia Shujuan, who works in the community, earns only more than 1,000 yuan a month, which is not enough to cover the family's expenses, and Bao Xishun, who is past her prime, has to face the camera again. For the sake of his children, the giant went out of the mountain again. Someone suggested that Xia Shujuan, who can speak well, take Bao Xishun to eat and broadcast food, and "eat with the giant", which will definitely become a hit. Xia Shujuan sneered, "He's not so eloquent, and he's getting older." ”

Between the living room and the kitchen, the powerful and capable woman quickly counted the giant, "He is now deaf and blind." He didn't even know the words on the screen. What do you say he can do for you? Be a delivery anchor, that's impossible. ”

Bao Xishun sat on the tatami mat in the living room. Xia Shujuan, who was standing in front of the TV, was taller than him. After the machine-gun-like words landed, she glanced at him with a condescending gaze. Bao Xishun smiled in agreement, his mung bean-like eyes narrowed, bending in a soft arc.

At the bottom of his gaze is the ordinary life that Bao Xishun cherishes.

monster

In the first half of his life as a "giant", Bao Xishun experienced too much attention. On the streets of the city, oncoming people will bump into his lower abdomen and then look up. Those who pass by often walk far away and still have their eyes glued to him, squinting and looking repeatedly. Some people laughed and apologized as they watched, their eyes dodging and uncontrollably curious. Someone squinted his eyes and looked back and forth at him a few times, scrutinizing and scanning them.

"Monster", this is before becoming famous, with these eyes, Bao Xishun heard the most titles.

Figure | Bao Xishun in the center of his gaze

Along with the salutation comes imagination. People always fantasize that Bao Xishun has some kind of great or mysterious power. "When I see him in the middle of the night, I'm scared. "Look at these hands, slap me, and I'm gone." "Under the video of his appearance, there are always people who express fear of unknown forces.

In fact, Bao Xishun has little strength, and without crutches, he can't even stand for long. He was born in a leaky mud hut on a snowy winter night in 1951 and grew up in a poor family. On the edge of the Horqin Sandy Land in the Wengniute Banner of Chifeng City, Inner Mongolia, Bao Xishun's parents, like other villagers, farm on the vast and desolate sandy land and graze cattle and sheep on the grassland, providing only the minimum livelihood for their children. Due to material scarcity, when he was a child, Bao Xishun, who was tall, was more stunted than other children, and his limbs were weak and weak.

The harbinger of becoming a "giant" is that the world in front of you is getting smaller and smaller. Around the age of 15, Bao Xishun found his head getting closer and closer to the roof. The kang at home couldn't fit his legs, so he had to move a wooden bench to extend it. The quilt can only cover half of the body, "the top of the cover is exposed, and the bottom of the cover is exposed". Parents need twice as much fabric to make a dress for themselves, even if they just find some rotten cloth to sew together.

The increase in demand soon became a problem for him. In addition to himself, there are four brothers and sisters in the family, and when eating, Bao Xishun has to eat two bowls and more than a pound of corn rice at each meal to feel full. When he found out, he was ashamed and never had a full meal. He went out to plow the field every morning after eight o'clock, trying to make as much use of the body as possible.

The feedback around him also reminded Bao Xishun of his abnormality at all times. "Why is he so tall?" "It's not normal, he should be sick." "Monster-like. "Monster, Bao Xishun agreed with this title. When other children stopped growing, "I kept growing day by day." Bao Xishun, who was still a child, thought in fear that he must be sick.

Growing up in that era of advocating collective life and labor, the contrast between huge and weak body size tore apart Bao Xishun's youth. His physical characteristics are inconsistent with others, making him ostracized and a withdrawn outlier. Labor has become a way for Bao Xishun to seek consistency and identity.

At the age of 17, Bao Xishun traveled 80 kilometers to build houses and roads. At the construction site, he found that he could easily plaster mud on the roof of the house without having to build a ladder. The shovel was held in the hand like a small spoon. Using his strengths, he did more hard work than others. Two months later, he walked another 80 kilometers home, and only halfway through, a dull pain came from the soles of his feet.

Chronic malnutrition, overwork, and a quilt that could not cover his legs left Bao Xishun with a lifelong rheumatism at the age of 17. When the pain in his feet was unbearable, he only washed his feet with hot water and did not tell his family. Until the parents found out that the second son, who could run with more than 100 pounds of sacks when he was a teenager, even walking empty-handed has become a problem in recent years.

Figure | Bao Xishun is on the kang of the local house at home

Bao Xishun became a big and useless "giant". Unable to work, he lost the best way to integrate into the collective. It wasn't until 1970 that his father sold a horse, exchanged it for 600 yuan, and took him to Shenyang for medical treatment, that he saw a turn of fate.

In the 70s, Shenyang was the largest city in Northeast China, and urban people with more living resources showed more curiosity about new things. Walking on the streets of the city, Bao Xishun attracted countless onlookers. People on bicycles and in blue-green-and-gray overalls frequently looked at him. In this city with more freedom, opportunities emerged for the first time in the eyes of Bao Xishun.

After Leng Wanju, a coach of the Shenyang Military Region, saw him on the street, he asked someone to inquire about the news, found Bao Xishun, helped him transfer him to a military hospital for treatment, and invited him to join the basketball team of the Shenyang Military Region.

In the winter of 1970, in a clothing store in Shenyang, a tailor who climbed on a stool measured twice with a two-meter soft ruler to customize an army-green formal suit for Bao Xishun. This is the first time Bao Xishun has worn tailor-made clothes. At night, he stayed in the same dormitory as the standard room in the hotel, slept in a custom-made bed, stretched his arms and legs, and was surprised to find that "the mattress was long enough, and the bed was long enough." He saw countless meals in the cafeteria, "mostly meat" that could be eaten "as much as you want."

However, three years later, Bao Xishun still left the team on his own initiative. During this time, he tried to seize the opportunity, but he did not have the strength. He gets up at five or six o'clock in the morning every morning to practice running, shooting, and dribbling, but the soles of his feet are always as stiff as when he was 17 years old, and he can't turn them, so he can only cushion his toes and land on the ground with half of his feet. After all kinds of attempts, his rheumatism never recovered, and his emaciated limbs could no longer regain their strength.

Bao Xishun was unwilling to drag down his teammates, repeatedly refused to be retained by the coach, and returned to the grassland. After discovering that no matter how hard he tried, he could not break through his fate, and he no longer longed for a worthy future.

After returning home, Bao Xishun's height continued to grow, eventually stabilizing at 2.36 meters a year later at the age of 23. This is the height of "unique" in the grassland. When riding, his long legs drooped down, "Others ride horses on four legs, but I land on six legs." He couldn't find the right clothes, shoes and socks, so his mother had to sew them by hand.

His mother would use eight pieces of hemp rope to get a sole for him. Bao Xishun saw that for countless days, his mother tore out the rags from her old clothes, stacked them five or six on top of each other, cut out the soles of her shoes, and then threaded hemp rope into the eye of the needle, and pierced back and forth on the cloth, with dense stitches, from early morning to night.

The life of being besieged by the body is like a long winter night in Inner Mongolia, and the shoes made by his mother are one of the few warm comforts that Bao Xishun can obtain in these days. This temperature didn't last long. In the 80s, his mother was suffering from cancer and stepped up to make shoes and socks for him on the sickbed. In his final days, Bao received winter socks made from his own sheep and blue Mongolian boots that reached to his calves. Then the mother's stitch stalled in the winter of 1991. Soon after, his father, who was in his nineties, also passed away.

The 40-year-old feels like his life has come to a standstill. The brothers and sisters have also moved out one after another, and the mud house where the family of seven once lived has become less crowded.

His life gradually left only himself. He had been imprisoned in this large, but feeble body.

Figure | Bao Xishun's domestic sheep

During this time in the grassland, Bao Xishun's activities were limited to a few acres of fields in front of his home and the grassland where sheep were grazing, and he hardly met people. He planted the land early in the morning, grazed in the afternoon, ploughed in the spring, harvested and ploughed in the fall, and cut the corn with a sickle when the seedlings grew from twenty or thirty centimeters to the same height as himself.

Thirty years of living like this. From the age of 23 to the age of 53, Bao Xishun abandoned all imagination of the future, weathered in the sand like this village, and fell silent in time with the withered grass on the wasteland.

The villagers found that the second son of the Bao family, who was once humorous and lively, became introverted, autistic, and less verbal. For a while, Bao Xishun felt that his days were soaked in tears. After drying up his tears, I don't know if it was because of hard work, or trying to weaken the gap with others, he began to hunched over, and his body and spirit curled inward together.

At the same time, China as a whole is opening up. On the morning of December 19, 1990, a year before Bao Xishun's mother died, China's first stock exchange held an opening ceremony at the Pujiang Hotel in Shanghai, sounding the first hammer of the opening of the market, with a turnover of more than 5.87 million yuan within half an hour. The thunder of the Southern Conversation pierced the dreary air of the early 90s. While the hot waves are surging on the streets of Shenzhen, the goose feathers and heavy snow have also begun to flutter in Tiexi District. The desire to get rich, the volatile market, began to stir up turmoil in the hearts of the people across the country.

On the grassland, Bao Xishun, who "accepted his fate", spent the first 50 years of his life with the most vitality. He didn't dare to imagine that just ten years later, the tide of the new world would choose him, and take him to the high ground of the world with his powerlessness.

spectacle

In September 2004, a middle-aged man of 1.65 meters knocked on the door of Bao Xishun's earthen house on the edge of the grassland.

The nephew of the family was the first to be wary of a visit from a stranger. "Who are you??, and what are you going?" he said to the visitor. According to the visitor, his name is Xin Xing, the owner of a cold pot fish restaurant in Chifeng City, and he wants to invite Bao Xishun to go to the store to do publicity and distribute flyers at the door for ten days.

Bao Xishun subconsciously felt resistant. He thought of the eyes of the crowd in the city when he first went to Shenyang in 1970. Everywhere he went, the streets were always crowded, and "a lot of people were vying to see them...... It's as if I'm an animal, not a human. In the center of these gazes, he always shortened his neck and curled up. He tried to restrain himself, but there was nowhere to hide because of his tall body.

"What's the use of going to the city? it's nothing more than being watched, photographed, and looked like a monster. "He wanted to refuse Xin Xing.

"I dare say that you have never earned a thousand dollars in your life. After several attempts to persuade him, Xin Xing finally quoted the price. The people present were silent. At that time, the people who grazed and cultivated the land in Bao Xishun Village only had an annual income of six or seven hundred yuan.

In 2004, China's economy reached a period of rapid growth. This year, the GDP reached 209.3 billion yuan, making it the fastest growth rate since the "Seventh Five-Year Plan" was put forward in 1985. This year, in Inner Mongolia, several large enterprise groups such as electric power, aluminum factories, and cigarette factories have just completed reform and reorganization. This year, the number of star-rated hotels in the country exceeded 10,000 for the first time, reaching 10,888, an increase of 11.7% over the end of last year.

Under the fierce competition and the boom of the market, the hotel owner Xin Xing saw business opportunities in Bao Xishun's height. At that time, Xin Xing's restaurant only had seven or eight tables of people at noon, and the attendance rate at night was only 70%. After using various promotional methods such as performances, discounts, and wine delivery to no avail, Xin Xing accidentally opened the magazine "The Best of Chifeng" on the bookshelf and saw Bao Xishun on page 375. The man, who was named the "highest herdsman in Chifeng", stood in the center of the paper, surrounded by a crowd of people who took a group photo. After closing the magazine, Xin Xing immediately drove to the pastoral area more than 100 kilometers away.

After 34 years since 1970, Bao Xishun has entered the modern city for the second time, only to feel more alien than before. After the drastic changes of the times and concepts, the faces of people on the street have become more diverse. As far as the eye can see, the clothing of men, women and children is no longer limited to one color and one style, and there are too many styles to count.

Bao Xishun has a more decent and well-fitting dress than last time, which was customized by the boss Xin Xing and used more than 10 meters of fabric. The night before his official work, he wore this dress and took a photo with the people in the store. Silver sequins flashed between the azure blue robes, and auspicious clouds fluttered on the purple and yellow placket. Bao Xishun, who was wrapped in it, stood straight in the center of the picture.

Figure | Bao Xishun's work photo

Four staff members wearing black jackets and holding a bouquet of flowers surrounded the "giants" in full costume. The people around him were smiling, and there was no expression on his face.

Bao Xishun knew the fate that was coming. I will be watched as a spectacle, but if I make a decision, I can't look back, "I'm afraid to watch, I'm not afraid to watch, so let's watch." He told himself.

The next day, near noon, Xin Xing asked Bao Xishun to hand out flyers in front of the cold pot fish shop, telling him to stand only for 10 minutes. Less than halfway through the ten minutes, the entrance of the hotel was crowded with people. Traffic jams began on the road. People rushed to Bao Xishun, talked to him, took pictures, and asked him questions. Others lifted off their Mongolian robes, touched his legs, and pinched them to see if they were real or fake.

Bao Xishun made Xin Xing's restaurant a lot of money. For this tall "giant" with slender limbs, Xin Xing's wife didn't like it from the beginning. When she saw him, she was "very surprised": "Why is it so tall? I stood in front of him like his cane." ”

Bao Xishun, who was on crutches, stood unsteadily in front of her, swaying back and forth. She looked at him and imagined that if the "giant" fell, she would have to stay away from him, "and if it fell, it would hit me." She looked at Bao Xishun with more fear and worry than Xin Xing. "Our industry is the catering industry, and if you invite a patient, it will directly affect the hygiene problem. She reflected her worries to Xin Xing. Classmates and friends who partnered with Xin Xing also agreed.

Driven by Xin Xing and the media, Bao Xishun underwent a two-day physical examination at the First Affiliated Hospital of Inner Mongolia Medical College in Hohhot.

The result was unexpected: Bao Xishun's height did not stem from any abnormalities in his body. Even, at the age of 53, he is healthier than his peers in some indicators, and has a 30-year-old heart.

On July 21, 2005, with the help of the media, Bao Xishun won the Guinness World Records certificate for his naturally growing height, becoming the "world's tallest person in health".

Figure | Bao Xishun was interviewed as "the world's tallest natural growth person".

In the days when he returned to the grassland after receiving the certificate, Bao Xishun felt a kind of gaze that the villagers had never had. Is it envy, affirmation, or approval? He wasn't sure, but in any case, there was no more rejection or resistance in it.

Since then, Bao Xishun has not heard the term "monster" again. After all, "I'm not sick, I'm natural." He thought that the most important thing was not "the first highest", but the words "natural growth". He felt that there was a place in his heart that "brightened".

"I'm just like everyone else, I just grow taller, and if you want to grow so tall, you can't. In front of the media, he occasionally utters two witty words.

Xin Xing also found that Bao Xishun changed a person after getting the certification. He began to have facial expressions and smiled a lot of the time. He sat down to eat, drink, and clink glasses with everyone, and talked a lot. In the gaze of no longer rejecting him as an alien, Bao Xishun gradually began to stretch his body, accept the reality of being regarded as a "spectacle", and make a profit from it. He participated in various activities, rented a house in Chifeng City, and tried to gain a foothold in the city.

Man stands in the shell of a "giant". Bao Xishun began to seek his own life.

giant

Bao Xishun remembers the first time he took a plane when he went to Hohhot for a physical examination at the age of 53. The plane was small and "could only carry 33 people." The door to the cabin was as high as his chest. After getting into the plane, he had to bend seventy or eighty degrees and could not stand completely. The seat he sat in was too cramped, so he couldn't help but change seats with the person next to him and move to a row of seats for two.

The second time I took a plane, I flew to London, England, and received the certification of Guinness as "the world's No. 1 healthiest person". The Guinness headquarters paid for Bao Xishun to sit in first class with reporters. When the seat was lowered, he realized that even if he was lying flat, his legs would not fall to the floor.

On Tuesday evening, September 20, 2005, Pao arrived in London and stayed at an expensive hotel in the Knightsbridge area. Two days later, the "giant" dressed in a sapphire blue Mongolian robe appeared in Westminster Abbey Square in London, causing a commotion.

The Daily Mail devoted a full page to his report under the title "Such a Height!". The Sun devoted two full pages, with photos of Bao Hee-shun with the British palace guards. The Sun became the most sought-after newspaper in London that day.

Figure | Abroad, aiming at Bao Xishun's lens

Bao Xishun didn't expect that a year after walking out of the grassland, he would go out into the world. At the beginning of this century, China formally joined the World Trade Organization. In the tide of globalization, culture and opportunities are flowing everywhere. Bao Xishun has also become a "giant" in the world.

He went abroad more than a dozen times in half a year, frequently participated in various activities, and his personality became more and more cheerful. In front of everyone, he can sing the Inner Mongolia folk song "Gadamerin" in a deep voice, and when taking a photo with someone, if the other party twists and pinchs, he will also smile and say: "Cough, woman, don't be embarrassed, get closer!"

Through the hot pot restaurant display in 2004, Bao Xishun found a place in the city. Becoming a world-certified "giant" completely lifted him to a heights he never imagined. In 2005, the newspaper in northern Inner Mongolia, which continued to report on him, built a "Giant's House" and rolled out a red carpet on a sunny day in the summer and held a plaque unveiling ceremony. Wearing top hats and fancy costumes, the "giants" stepped out of the whitewashed new house, and the door frame was specially raised. The camera gives him a close-up: the "giant" no longer has to bend over.

Figure | The media built a "giant's house" for Bao Xishun

In those two years, Bao Xishun lived a star-like life. When he stays in a hotel, someone will help pick up the bed, and he will occupy two seats on the plane, and he will travel in an extended car. In 2006, when attending an event in Tianjin, an old man known as the "Tianjin Hat King" excitedly sent gifts. The old man heard that Bao Xishun did not have a suitable hat, so he specially made a flat-brimmed sheepskin top hat for him, with a circumference of 64 cm and a depth of 12 cm, worth 600 yuan, which is worthy of the income of the villagers in Bao Xishun's hometown for nearly a year.

At the Tianjin Water Park, where the event was held, people rushed to take photos with him. Someone turned on the camera and found that they couldn't get a full picture of the "giant". He started the photography business in the park. A photographer with a large 17cm wide-angle lens rushed to hear the news and received 113 orders in two hours.

For five days in a row, Bao Xishun was in charge of the lottery after the performance. He put his hand into the cardboard box, and the audience burst into cheers. The winner picked up the microphone and said loudly in the audience: "Thank you to the giant for bringing me luck!" On the program, the host also spoke in an impassioned tone and looked up at him: "You win glory for our Asia!"

Bao Xishun did not understand why he was "winning glory for Asia". Is being tall a benefit? At least I didn't think so. His height has not changed since he was in his early twenties, but people have seen him leap from one extreme to the other in the past 30 years.

His height deprived him of his strength, and it also made Bao Xishun feel that he was not regarded as a "person". Since childhood, he has been weak in his limbs, out of shape, slow in his movements, and can no longer stand without crutches for long periods of time after a fall.

The "giant" is more like a prop of the times than a physical body possessed by his subject. He felt like he was just being tied to this body, pushed around with the hearts of the people who were surging in the changing times. In order to survive, he constantly curls up or expands his body with the gaze of people.

After relying on the body of a "giant" to obtain more and more survival resources, for a while, Bao Xishun tried to use everything his body provided for him to the extreme.

At an event in Tianjin, Bao Xishun saw an orthopedic surgeon take out a steel tape measure and measure his hands. The results showed that his palm was 27 centimeters long and 13.5 centimeters wide, twice the size of the palm of an average adult. Bao Xishun was inspired at this moment. He proposed that he could apply for another Guinness record as the "world's biggest player". One more record, one more attention.

Figure | In 2007, Bao Xishun sat in the car to exhibit "Giant Hands"

After rescuing the dolphins at the Liaoning Aquarium, he repeatedly participated in the show to get himself watched as much as possible. Nippon TV produced two fake dolphins and invited him to fly to Japan to demonstrate the whole process, and the director was very demanding, "every action was repeated over and over again", which he found cumbersome, but he also cooperated seriously. In the past two years, Bao Xishun's appearance fee for domestic activities has been given 60,000 yuan, and abroad has reached 3,000 euros a day.

His interviews and reports continued and became the focus of public opinion. When playing cards with neighbors at home, he found that someone was secretly making trouble, he would not be as obedient as in the past, but reminded the other party with a smile: "Be disciplined, if you play tricks again, I will publish you in the newspaper tomorrow!" For a while, Bao Xishun felt that people close to him were always "not too simple". He finally showed his anger in a media interview: "I'm not a cash cow! I'm not a fool! I'll be angry if you mess with me!"

Bao Xishun hopes to accumulate resources through people's gaze to build his own life. Finally, once, he revealed his dream on stage: "I want to have a family." "My dream is to live like a normal person. ”

Figure | "Marriage of giants" made headlines

The news of the "Giant's Marriage" once again made headlines and triggered an enthusiastic response. Since then, more than 20 ladies from 9 provinces and municipalities have offered to marry him. In the past two years, Bao Xishun has met many single women and officially went on blind dates 4 times. Almost all of the people who looked for him were divorced with children. With his own feelings, Bao Xishun didn't choose them.

Until Xia Shujuan appeared and looked at him with unusual eyes. The shy expression showed Bao Xishun's liking. The contrast between the introverted personality and body shape of the "giant", coupled with the catalyst of the dolphin incident, also made Xia Shujuan affectionate. A relationship finally has the meaning of running in both directions. Xia Shujuan ignored her parents' opposition and began to have a close relationship with Bao Xishun. On July 12, 2007, the two registered their marriage a month after their first meeting and held a traditional Mongolian wedding in Ordos. The wedding was sponsored by more than 20 companies and cost 700,000 yuan. A month later, the two came to the Great Hall of the People in Beijing to accept the award called "Prosperous Wedding".

In the era of cramped and closed, Bao Xishun's huge body once made him suffer from the criticism of "monsters", and his weak body shattered his vision of breaking through. Since the 50s, for half a century, he has given up his hopes and desires in life, trapped in his birthplace, as silent as a grassland plant. Until the advent of the millennium, the open and mobile society pushed him into the world of flowers, allowing him to toss and turn to fame and fortune.

The giant's body is like a mirror, reflecting the reflection of the times and people's hearts, but Bao Xishun, who is the center of his gaze, has always been difficult to see himself in it. Until a special individual emerges in the pluralistic era and makes a firm choice for him.

Bao Xishun is finally no longer just the "giant", the "tallest man in the world". He had his own role, was accepted and chosen, and became the lover of an ordinary woman.

After getting married, Bao Xishun and his wife Xia Shujuan moved into a two-bedroom apartment in a residential building in Chifeng City. The 2.8m x 2.2m wooden bed that the furniture store custom-made for him just fills an entire room in the two-bedroom apartment. Bao Xishun went to work in the entertainment city in Chifeng City, earning about 1,600 yuan a month, while Xia Shujuan continued to work as a shopping guide in the shopping center.

With the normalization of exchanges between China and the world, the craze of "giants" is gradually subsiding. Bao Xishun's invitations gradually decreased. During those years, he saw more of the "best of the world". He rode the "world's largest Ferris wheel" in England and the "world's largest ship" in Germany, and met the lady with "the longest fingernails in the world", whose nails were more than a metre long.

The "shortest man in the world", who was only 70 centimeters, became friends with him, the tallest man. Every time they met at an event, the two greeted each other with a smile.

Figure | Bao Xishun shakes hands with the "dwarf".

The last time I saw my friend with the biggest height difference was in Italy. In the second year after returning to China, Bao Xishun learned that the "dwarf" had died due to illness. This was also Bao Xishun's last trip abroad.

In 2009, Sultan Kosen, a Turkish suffering from gigantism, replaced Bao Xishun's previous record of "the world's tallest person in health" with a height of 2.47m, becoming a new height in the world. Bao Xishun, like everyone else in the world, is no longer the tallest person in the world.

ordinary

Whether to have children or not is the first problem Bao Xishun and his wife faced after getting married.

Bao Xishun worries that the child will inherit his own physical problems, such as being too tall or weak in his limbs, so he repeats the story of his life. The couple had sought the doctor's opinion. At the hospital, a doctor advised him not to have children, because his height did not originate from any lesions, and there was a certain possibility that he would inherit it to his children and cause problems in his life. His wife, Xia Shujuan, who is nearly 30 years old, is also considered by doctors to have missed the best age for childbearing.

However, Xia Shujuan had a firm attitude: "Now that I have grown much taller, what about the high point?" After repeated consideration, the heart of wanting to have the ordinary life he once dreamed of overshadowed everything. Bao Xishun and his wife finally decided not to listen to the doctor's advice, take risks to make choices, even if there are problems.

In October 2008, Xia Shujuan successfully gave birth to a baby boy in a hospital in Hebei, weighing 8 pounds and 4 taels. The child generally looks like his mother, with big ears and some naturally curly hair, and he looks very much like Bao Xishun. Bao Xishun, who is about to be in his twilight years, became a father. He was full of gratitude and named the child "Tianyou", which means to pray for heaven's blessing.

Figure | Bao Xishun accompanied Xia Shujuan, who had just given birth

When the child was full moon, Bao Xishun enthusiastically made tea, prepared snacks, and invited reporters to visit the room. He found that his son was indeed growing very fast, just over the moon, but he looked like a two-month-old child. But Bao Xishun is not alarmed. "Look at how great my son is, he's very strong. In just a month and a day, his neck was able to stand up. Speaking to the camera, he said proudly.

With a child, Bao Xishun's two-bedroom and one-hall house became lively. Bao Xishun looks at Tianyou's fleshy face every day before going to bed, feeling that he is "like a dream". When the child was a little older, he used his hands as a cradle and sang songs to lull the child to sleep. When the child is able to walk, he lies flat on the bed and lets the child walk back and forth on him. The distance of 2.36 meters is just enough for toddlers to take a few trips after meals to exercise and eat.

Once Tianyou stepped on Bao Xishun's stomach that had just eaten, he was hurriedly reprimanded by Xia Shujuan, "Dad has eaten, you can't step on your stomach!" Xia Shujuan was worried about Bao Xishun's body, and Bao Xishun was full of enjoyment of parent-child time. He grinned and hurriedly said, "It's okay!"

No matter what, everything is fine, many questions, Bao Xishun is used to answering in two or three words, "It's okay", or "whatever". Bao Xishun didn't care about anything anymore. Compared with everything he has experienced in the past, his current home has provided him with more satisfaction than he imagined.

Xia Shujuan constantly remodeled the room to provide a more comfortable environment for Bao Xishun, who was bulky, in her small home. She nailed a row of hooks high up in the bedroom wall to hang Bao Xishun's coat that he couldn't hang in the closet. She remodeled the bottom of the toilet bowl and raised the tatami mat on the living room sofa where Bao Xishun often slew, "Because his waist is not good, if he is too short, when he stands up, his waist will hurt." ”

Figure | Bao Xishun and Xia Shujuan

After marriage, the two barely blushed. Only occasionally, when Xia Shujuan was brushing her shoes hard, Bao Xishun would shout anxiously, "Be careful, don't break your shoes!" In the past, Bao Xishun always had no shoes to wear, and even now that there are sponsors who have promised to fund his shoes for a lifetime, he is always afraid of losing what he has.

Xia Shujuan understood his feelings, so she pretended to agree in front of him. "Got it!" she slowed down, making her gestures soft, and as soon as Bao Xishun turned around, she brushed quickly and vigorously again.

Now, Bao Xishun wakes up at half past six every morning, drinks a pot of tea, and watches a skit about her mother-in-law and daughter-in-law arguing. At half past seven in the evening, he waited on the same channel to watch his favorite basketball game. Xia Shujuan works in the community, receiving a salary of more than 1,000 yuan, and is anxious every day, worrying about three meals and children's grades. 15-year-old Tianyou is in the third year of junior high school, nearly two meters tall, likes to play basketball, and does not like to do math problems bought by his mother.

Like all ordinary families in China, parents are always worried about their children's grades. "He's either stupid or lazy, and he feels tired when he brushes up on the questions. Xia Shujuan was worried that her child would not be admitted to high school and would have to "work as an electrician, repair cars, repair tires, stir-fry vegetables, and collect old household appliances."

Bao Xishun had a good attitude, just smiled, "Be a good electrician, and you can also win." ”

After the sunlight in the living room faded, Bao Xishun sat up on the raised tatami mat and prepared to rest. The wind was blowing, and a few freshly washed large short-sleeved pieces fluttered outside the window of his house, which was shrouded in the quiet moonlight. Sitting at home, Bao Xishun looked no different from an ordinary old man, with drooping eyes dragging their eye sockets to form a natural arc. This long face seems to be always smiling and squinting, revealing a pleasant color, and there is no confusion, desire, or worry.

For a few moments, Bao Xishun said that he had lived "enough". He finally had an ordinary life.

Figure | In the bedroom, there is a photo of Bao Xishun and Xia Shujuan when they got married

*All photos in this article are provided by the interviewees, except for those taken by the author

- END -

Written by Fontaine

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