Wang Xianxiang carries two buckets of water with his eyelids during a provincial festival for migrant workers in Shaodong County, Hunan province, Saturday.
“The 42-year-old fireworks maker from the central Chinese province of Hunan was photographed last weekend performing his signature trick: Suspending two water buckets with a combined weight of 9 pounds on plastic hangers hooked to his eyelids for a minute.
Wang says he is hoping to increase the amount of weight he can carry with his eyelids.
Wang entertained local migrant workers at a provincial festival near his hometown of Liuyang Saturday.
“When I first started it was extremely painful,” Wang told NBC News about his unique talent, “but after a lot of practice it’s just uncomfortable today.”
Among other talents he’s developed for the show? Having two men wrap a metal wire tightly around his neck while he talks to the audience, which he says has been in the thousands.
Wang, who is married with two children, said he has been doing his eyelid trick for five to six years and started doing it purely out of boredom.
But as he increased the weight on his eyelids, he started to train – practicing for 30 minutes each morning and two hours at night.
Wang’s family initially frowned upon his hobby, but slowly came around as his stature grew within the community.
When asked what his aspirations for the future were, Wang kept it simple. “I can currently hold 4.5 pounds on each eyelid, I’d like to push that to 11 pounds per eyelid.”
He was optimistic that he could accomplish that eye-popping feat by the end of the year