Fame
At the age of 45, he became withdrawn after the death of his mother until he was offered a job as a greeter at a restaurant. He quickly gained attention from the local media, who applied to Guinness World Records on his behalf. He was measured and found to be 2 mm taller than the previous record holder, Radhouane Charbib.
In December 2006, Bao Xishun was asked by veterinarians to assist them in removing shards of plastic from the stomachs of two dolphins. The dolphins had accidentally swallowed the shards, which had settled in their stomachs and caused a loss of appetite and depression. Veterinarians had failed to remove them, so Bao Xishun used his 1.06-metre long arms to reach into the dolphins' stomachs, to remove the plastic manually. (A similar operation was performed by American basketball player Clifford Ray, who was asked to use his long arms to save a California dolphin in 1978.)
Bao Xishun married saleswoman Xia Shujuan on March 24, 2007. The Mongolian ceremony (sponsored by at least 15 companies) took place on July 12, 2007 at the Genghis Khan holiday resort on the grasslands near Ordos City. Bao's surname indicates that he belongs to the same paternal lineage as Genghis Khan's clan, Borjigin. Amongst the guests was fellow Inner-Mongolian and the shortest man in the world, He Pingping.
Xishun's daughter was born at a hospital in Zunhua, Hebei province October 2, 2008.
Bao appeared on the eleventh episode of The Amazing Race 16 as the pitstop greeter. The episode aired on May 2, 2010. He was considered to be the world's tallest man at the time of filming, but a few days later, Sultan Kösen was measured by the Guinness Book of World Records and declared to be the tallest.
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Famous quotes containing the word fame:
“But those rare souls whose spirit gets magically into the hearts of men, leave behind them something more real and warmly personal than bodily presence, an ineffable and eternal thing. It is everlasting life touching us as something more than a vague, recondite concept. The sound of a great name dies like an echo; the splendor of fame fades into nothing; but the grace of a fine spirit pervades the places through which it has passed, like the haunting loveliness of mignonette.”
—James Thurber (1894–1961)
“Alas, we are the victims of advertisement. Those who taste the joys and sorrows of fame when they have passed forty, know how to look after themselves. They know what is concealed beneath the flowers, and what the gossip, the calumnies, and the praise are worth. But as for those who win fame when they are twenty, they know nothing, and are caught up in the whirlpool.”
—Sarah Bernhardt (1845–1923)
“Fame sometimes hath created something out of nothing. She hath made whole countries more than nature ever did, especially near the poles, and then hath peopled them likewise with inhabitants of her own invention, pigmies, giants, and amazons: yea, fame is sometimes like unto a mushroom, which Pliny recounts to be the greatest miracle in nature, because growing and having no root, as fame no ground of her reports.”
—Thomas Fuller (1608–1661)