Chang the Chinese giant with his seated wife Kin Foo with fan and manager

Chang Woo Gow (1840s–1893), billed as Chang the Chinese Giant, made the first of his public appearances in London in the mid-1860s. Thousands of people lined up to see his extraordinary frame and hear his feats of linguistics (he was reportedly able to speak between six and ten languages) and he was soon touring Europe and the United States. Accompanied by his wife, Kin Foo, and manager Edward Parlett, he arrived in Australia in 1870 and toured the country over the next several years. While in Australia, after the death of Kin Foo, Chang met and married Catherine ‘Kitty’ Santley. They lived in Shanghai and Paris and had two sons before moving to England. In 1880, American impresario PT Barnum contracted Chang to join his so-called ‘Greatest Show On Earth’, a travelling circus, menagerie and museum of out-of-the-ordinary human specimens. Returning to England, Chang retired from the stage and, to help cure his suspected tuberculosis, moved with his family to Bournemouth. There, he operated a tearoom and ‘Oriental Bazaar’ selling Chinese curios and fabrics. He died, reportedly of a broken heart, four months after the death of his wife in 1893.