best friends.
some info. and pic when younger.
Xiphopagus twin brothers Liou Seng-Sen and Liou Tang-Sen were born in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China, around 1886.
When they were born, their frightened mother made a crude attempt to separate them by ligating their connecting band, but their circulation was disrupted and she quickly removed the ligature, never again attempting to divide them.
She died when they were two years old, leaving them in the care of their father. Their exhibition career began at an early age in their native China.
At age six they were shown at a fair in Hangzhou and were later taken to Shanghai. From there, they were taken to Korea, Japan, India, Australia and then spent three years touring Europe.
When the Lious and their father came to the United States around 1902 to pursue a career with the Barnum Circus, immigration from China had been recently banned and anti-Chinese sentiments were running high. Thus it was necessary to repackage the twins as Korean.
The Coshocton [Ohio] Democrat and Standard, advertising a public appearance of the twins in 1903, assured readers that the brothers "have typical oriental features, and might be mistaken for Chinese, but they were born in korea." Their "new" birthplace was said to be Kong Tsiou, a small village on the Keum-Kang River.
Tang-Sen, the twin on their left, was slightly larger and stronger that his brother and is said to have had a faster heartbeat and larger lung capacity. He was right handed, while his brother was left-handed.
Smaller Seng-Sen was "better developed" than Tang-Sen and said to be more susceptible to heat, cold and pain. When walking, Seng-Sen usually pulled ahead of his brother.
The connection between them was so flexible that they could stand either side-by-side or facing each other and were able to walk, run and play games with ease. When one twin was given alcohol, the other felt the effects.
They fell asleep at the same time, but one could be awoken without disturbing the other. As children, they were ill with smallpox simultaneously.
They were quite intelligent and learned English while residing in Bridgeport, Connecticut, with their father.
When examined by a Dr. LaBarre J. Leamy of the Medical Chirurgical College in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, in 1903, they were said to be fluent in the language and "ever ready to respond to inquiries concerning themselves". Later, they took an interest in learning photography.
While touring Europe in 1901, the twins were allegedly seized by surgeons in Vienna who wanted to attempt to separate the twins.
A Dr. Chapot-Prevost, who was credited with severing the similarly-joined twins Maria and Rosalina some years before, believed the operation could be performed without killing the twins.
However, the boys' father intervened at the last second, asserting that such an operation would destroy the brothers' livelihood.
The twins retired to Nanjing at the age of nineteen and disappeared from the public eye, at least in the West.
They married separate wives and collectively had two sons and a daughter. However, a life of seclusion took its toll on the family's once-substantial carnival earnings and the Liou brothers were forced once again to enter showbusiness, at the advanced age of 63.
Old and enfeebled, they expressed concern about whether they would choose to die together when one twin succumbed, or risk separation so that one might survive.
Nine years later, this grim speculation became a reality when bronchitis threatened the life of one of the brothers.
The twins underwent a groundbreaking operation at China Union Medical College in Beijing in 1957 and the ailing twin passed away, while the other survived to meet an uncertain fate.
At 71, the Liou brothers were the oldest conjoined twins ever recorded.
