He Pingping is, according to the Guinness Book, the world's smallest man.
He has 73 cm (2 ft 5 in) height and is the third child of a family in Huade County, in the city of Wulanchabu in northern China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. He has two sisters, both of whom developed at normal rates and are now married. According to his father, He Yun, at birth He Pingping was small enough to fit in the palm of his parent's hands. When it became apparent the child was growing very slowly, doctors diagnosed the cause as the bone deformity Osteogenesis imperfecta, which hinders normal bone growth and bodily height.
In January 2007, He was invited to take part on a television program in Tokyo, Japan and has since become an internet icon. His home of Inner Mongolia is also home to Bao Xishun, who at 2.36 metres tall was recognized by Guinness as the world's tallest man until September 2009. Their televised meeting in July 2007 attracted global media attention. In May 2008 he appeared in the British Channel 4 documentary called The World's Smallest Man and Me hosted by Mark Dolan. In September 2008 he appeared with the world's longest-legged woman, Svetlana Pankratova, in London's Trafalgar Square, to publicize the release of the 2009 edition of the Guinness Book of World Records.
In 2006 Guinness World Records disallowed an application from a then fourteen-year-old Nepalese boy, Khagendra Thapa Magar, who measures 53 cm but will review the case when he is 18 years old. A Jordanian man who claims to be the world's shortest man, Younis Edwan, has not been officially measured by Guinness.
Since his January 2007 appearance on television, He's status as the world's shortest man has been verified by Guinness World Records. His height was measured three times over the course of 10 hours before he received a certificate officially naming him as the world’s shortest living man.
In September 2008, He traveled to New York, New York to help launch the 2009 edition of the Guinness Book of World Records, which certified him as the World's Smallest Man.
