Zeng Jinlian: First woman to feature in history of the world's tallest people

Even 43 years after her death, Zeng Jinlian’s record of tallest woman ever remains unbroken.  

Zeng, who was from a small village in the Hunan Province in China, was 246.3 cm (8 ft 1 in) tall. She was the only woman to ever exist whose height was verified to be over 8 ft. Rumeysa Gelgi (Türkiye) is the tallest woman living and is an entire foot shorter than Zeng. 

She was the first woman in history to become the tallest living person at a point in her life. She held the title of the tallest person ever from 1981-82, taking over from Don Koehler (USA) who was slightly taller than Zeng but died in 1981.  

Growing up 

Zeng was born on 26 June 1964 to a lower middle-class household and records show that she had three siblings. Her parents, Zeng Xianmao and Yu Xueme, were of average heights at around 163 cm (5 ft 4.2 in) and 156 cm (5 ft 1.4 in) respectively. Zeng’s height was not a result of her genetics. 

Like many other people who are significantly taller than the average person, Zeng had to be provided with many accommodations to carry out day-to-day tasks. From a custom-made bed to tailored clothes, Zeng and her family had to quickly adjust to her height when she was growing up.  

Around her fourth birthday, she was 156 cm (5 ft 1.5 in) tall and by 13, she was over 7ft tall.  Zeng was believed to be largely introverted, enjoying the company of closed ones in addition to her books or magazines.  A newspaper published in 1980 described Zeng as someone who was very keen on contributing to China’s growth. The four-decade old article said she would read books on “how to be a good person.” 

A new career 

Zeng usually worked on the family farm growing up, but when news of her height spread around, an opportunity came her way.   

A basketball coach reached out to her, and she soon started playing the sport, her height being a huge advantage. She celebrated her 15th birthday while on the team.  

However, as she hit puberty, Zeng’s health started rapidly deteriorating. She started getting tired faster while playing basketball and felt weaker. She was soon formally diagnosed with diabetes and gigantism. Unfortunately, surgery was not an option for Zeng as it might have led to more fatal complications.   

An illustration of Zeng.

A life cut tragically short 

The teenager accepted her fate but made it a point to contribute to the bigger picture in some way. According to a Chinese publication, she convinced her parents to donate her body to science soon before passing away.  

Unfortunately, Zeng only lived until she was 18 after being diagnosed with diabetes, scoliosis and gigantism. A common cause for gigantism is a tumour on the pituitary gland, which secretes the growth hormone.  

Despite her short-lived time, Zeng made a significant impact on medical research when her wishes to donate her body to science were fulfilled. Her body went to Central South University's Human Morphology Science and Technological Museum.      

Around the time of her death, Zeng was still growing. It is speculated that if she had lived longer, she could have been as tall – or taller – than Robert Wadlow. Robert is the tallest person to ever live. Robert is also the tallest man ever and was 2.72 m (8 ft 11.1 in) tall.