[CHANG WOO GOW]. Collection of Chang The Chinese Giant Ephemera. Eight pieces, ca. 1860s - 1880s. Includes: Sheet music [complete, 8 pp.] with color pictorial lithographed cover for The Chin-Chin-Chang Galop by Marquis Chisholm, bearing an illustration of Chang. London: Concanen Siebe & Co. Lith., 1884. Trimmed at top and bottom. – Color lithographed sheet music [cover only, trimmed] for Chang, The Great Fychow, Galop. – Color lithographed sheet music [cover only, trimmed] for “Chang, The Fychow Giant… an original Chinese song.” – Pictorial tinted lithograph sheet music, before lettering [cover only], bearing an image of Chang, his wife, and Chung Mow. – Page from The Illustrated London News (Sept. 30, 1865), with an article about Chang appearing at Egyptian Hall and a depiction of the performers. – Small pictorial letterpress playbill advertising an event at Piccadilly Hall featuring Chang. – Small three-color pictorial letterpress broadside for a reception with Chang and another giant at the Royal Aquarium. – And a later black and white photograph of Chang with his wife. Largest measuring 13 ½ x 10”. Condition varies, commensurate with age.
Chang Woo Gow, sometimes billed as Chang Yu-sing, was the stage name of Zhan Shichai (1840s – 1893), popularly known as “Chang the Chinese Giant,” or “the Great Fychow.” Born in Fuzhou, China, Zhan travelled to London in 1865 where he began appearing onstage, often alongside his first wife, Kin Foo (d. 1871), and his “attendant dwarf,” Chung Mow. Zhan Shichai also traveled to the United States and Australia before retiring from public life in 1878 and settling in Bournemouth, England.