Chinese ‘frog prince’ glassblower has unusually protruding cheeks after 30 years of work
Nicknamed ‘big mouth brother’ by colleagues, 48-year-old with ‘balloon’ face suffers muscle damage due to continual blowing
A glassblower in China has seen his cheeks protrude dramatically like a frog because of the strain he has put on them during 30 years of work in the industry.
The 48-year-old, surnamed Zhang, who works at a glass manufacturer in Zhongshan, Guangdong province, southern China, has captivated social media with his bent-out-of-shape face, according to a report by the news outlet jxnews.com.cn.
Long-term and intensive work has strangely developed Zhang’s facial muscles, such that his cheeks puff out bizarrely when he blows.
His colleagues affectionately call him “big mouth brother”, while he lightheartedly dubs himself the “frog prince”, the report said.
From a village in central Hunan province, Zhang has been working in the glass industry in Guangdong for 30 years.
Viral videos show Zhang using a 1.5 metre-long metal pipe to pick up a mass of melted glass heated to more than 1,000 degrees Celsius and blow air through the pipe to make the glass mass expand.
He is seen delicately revolving the pipe to adjust the shape of the glass while continuing to blow.
Zhang often does his job topless because of the heat in the workshop.