Born in 1811, Chang and Eng were officially the world's first what?
Chang & Eng (novel) Chang & Eng (novel) Chang & Eng is a book by American author Darin Strauss. It was a nominee for multiple awards, including the Pen Hemingway, the Barnes & Noble Discover Award, the New York Public Library's Literary Lions Award, and a winner of the American Library Association's Alex Award. Strauss fictionalizes the lives of Chang and Eng Bunker, the first famous conjoined twins, as they travel from old Siam (Thailand) and find fame in New York and, eventually, the Civil War South. In 1811 Chang and Eng Bunker are born, twins joined at the chest by a seven-inch-long ligament,
Chang and Eng Bunker Chang and Eng were born in 1811 in Siam (modern-day Thailand); their mother reportedly said their birth was no more difficult than their siblings'. Their exact date of birth and details of their early lives are unknown; the earliest report on the twins assigns the birth month of May 1811. Their birth village is called Meklong; a statue in the province of Samut Songkhram commemorates the twins' birthplace. Their father, Ti-eye, was a fisherman of Chinese descent. He died when the twins were young, possibly in a smallpox epidemic in 1819. Their mother, Nok, raised ducks with her children's help.