Review | How Siamese twins Chang and Eng captivated 19th century America and fathered 21 children

Inseparable
by Yunte Huang
Liveright

3.5/5 stars

It’s no surprise writers have been inspired by the life of Siamese twins Chang and Eng, born to Chinese-Thai fisherfolk in 1811 and taken to America at the age of 18 by a merchant who promised to return them after putting them on show. The pair – who shared a liver and were joined at the sternum – were later freed and became American citizens, and never saw Thailand again.

Instead of creating a novel around Chang and Eng, however, Yunte Huang has put together an eye-opening work of non-fiction that gives social and historical context to their lives (the twins were mobbed, in scenes that foreshadowed postbellum anti-Chinese riots). However, he also relies on conjecture, not always effectively. About their show in New York in 1829, Huang writes: “It was not entirely inconceivable that among the visitors […] would be Herman Melville [who mentioned them in a novella].”

More successful is Huang’s placement of the twins in an America not only fascinated by “freaks of nature” but also fearful of miscegenation. That didn’t stop Chang and Eng, who fathered 21 children with two white sisters. Just how, though, is wisely left to the imagination.