Skin record - interview by South China Morning Post Article published on the national day of China on 2000-10-1 (millennium national day) Miracle took place: (description written below) Date: 1979-7-22 Location: Cafeteria Beach, Hong Kong On a hot summer day, Barry went to the said beach with his family thinking of having a cool dip in water. As Barry admired Bruce Lee, the greatest Kung Fu fighter and martial arts movie star in the world, he was eager to have a tanned complexion like Bruce, so he spent 4 hours lying on the beach enjoying the burning sunbath without applying suntan lotion to his body. It was really a painful experience to him. A few days later, Meaco, his younger sister, who was ten-year old then, took 90 minutes to peel off from his chest the largest skin in the world (8.5 x 4 inches) off my chest with her hands (without using any equipment) in the shape of a China map representing Hong Kong residents are patriots and very much longing for returning the sovereignty to the mainland China. The feeling is so warm, which seems like an adopted child having a reunion with his bioparents. The skin specimen has carefully been kept in a stamp album for more than 36 years and will be passed from generation to generation. The skin specimen is now carefully kept intact in a stamp album by its owner. As it has been kept for so long, the edges turn yellow telling history, however, hair follicules can be seen with naked eyes and human skin texture does exist. The incident was reported on South China Morning Post on 2000-8-25 and 2007-1-14 (the recent report), and on Post Magazine on 2000-10-1, the National Day, and on HK Magazine, No 588 issue on 2005-8-19, and on Daily Oriental, a local Chinese newspaper, on 2000-9-26, and Apply Daily, another local Chinese newspaper, on 1997-11-25. Getting under your skin A video Lai See scales Mount Weird as Charlotte Parsons meets a Hong Kong sunburn victim who is trying get into the Guinness Book of Records for having history's biggest-ever sheet of peeled skin. The following points prove that the skin specimen come from a human being. 1) the specimen is elastic with the texture of a human skin 2) folliclies are obviously and clearly seen spreading all over the skin specimen 3) the colour of the skin specimen turned to yellow as it has been kept for years without preservatives 4) when viewing under a microcope, cells pattern can be spotted This is certainly a new and rare record held by human being. The reason of claiming that record is that Barry has a firm belief that such a large piece of skin can hardly be peeled off from a living human being without the use of apparatus. It is a 'small piece' to others but a great significance to him, his family and other patriots. Barry Kwok submitted his unique claim to fame to Guinness World Records: a piece of skin 21.6cm by 10.2cm peeled from his sunburnt chest in the shape of China. He claimed it was the largest piece of skin to be peeled whole from a living human, and it has been keeping the skin since 1979, when it peeled off after he got sunburnt on a Hong Kong beach. Mr Kwok has kept the skin, citing it as a family treasure "to be passed from generation to generation". "The technology may not exist in my lifetime," he said, to prove his claim, although he will research technology that could help him. In the meantime, he provides a magnifying glass to anyone who wants to stomach a closer vetting. "My younger sister took 90 minutes to help me to peel the largest piece of skin in the world off my chest with her hands, without using any equipment, in the shape of a China map," he said of the precision peeling by his sister 34 years ago when she was 10 years old. He keeps the skin in an album that contains his boyhood collection of 1970s Hong Kong stamps. The piece, held in place by tape, has taken on a yellowish-brown tinge over the years, but still maintains its size and elasticity. He said that for security reasons the album never leaves his home. While occasionally turning on a dehumidifier near the drawer where his prize is kept, Mr Kwok has not found it necessary to take any other steps to protect it. (For the record, the reason Mr Kwok was so sunburnt on a beach on July 22, 1979, was that he was trying to emulate the bronzed skin tone of his hero, Bruce Lee.) If the Guinness record bid ultimately fails, Mr Kwok said he would be happy to donate the skin to Ripley's Believe it or Not! for public viewing. Now interested parties can view it through this youtube video clip

• published: 10 Aug 2015
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