/ 14 January 2007

Peeling sunbather seeks place in record books

A Hong Kong man is seeking a place in the Guinness World Records book for a 21,6cm piece of sunburn peel in the shape of China, a news report said on Sunday.

Barry Kwok (43) claims the skin, which peeled from his chest after he was sunburnt on a Hong Kong beach, is the largest piece of skin peeled whole a living human, according to the Sunday Morning Post newspaper.

However, officials have refused to consider his record bid as he has only the preserved piece of skin and no picture to show his chest with the matching peeled area, the newspaper said.

Civil servant Kwok has been trying for seven years to have his record-holder status confirmed after preserving the piece of peeled skin since it came off his chest in 1979.

He kept it in a box of boyhood memorabilia along with his collections of stamps, but later decided it was worthy of a place in the record books, the newspaper reported.

”My younger sister took 90 minutes to help me 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,” Kwok said.

The Guinness World Records book has received a flood of applications from Hong Kong and China since appointing a representative in China to assess record bids three years ago. — Sapa-dpa