Standing at just 73 centimetres (2 feet 4 inches) tall, 19-year-old He Pingping first laid claim to the title of the world’s shortest man when he shot to fame in early 2007 after appearing on a Japanese TV show.

But Mr He had to wait until last week to be officially recognized as a world record breaker. Independent adjudicators from the Guinness Book of World Records traveled to northern China to verify his claims. Mr He’s height was measured three times over the course of one day before he received a certificate officially naming him as the world’s shortest living man. His record and picture will appear in the 2009 edition of the Guinness Book of Records.

The long and the short of it

He Pingping hails from city of Wulanchabu in China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. According to his father He Yun, he was as small as an adult’s palm at birth. When it became apparent that He was growing very slowly, doctors diagnosed the cause as the bone deformity Osteogenesis Imperfecta which hinders the normal growth of bone and bodily height.

Mr He is not the first unusual record breaker to hail from the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. Another northern China native Bao Xishun, who stands at a towering 7 feet 9 inches in height, was the world’s tallest living man until the emergence of the 8 feet 5 inch Ukrainian giant Leonid Stadnyk in August 2007. In a shameless publicity stunt, He and Bao were introduced to each other last year in an unorthodox bid to boost tourism in northern China.

Mr He faces some stiff competition for his newly acquired title. Taiwan’s Lin Yih-Chih has been unofficially measured at just 67.3 centimetres but his height has yet to be independently verified. Jordan’s Younis Edwan measures an even tinier 65 centimetres but his claim is also unofficial at this stage. In 2006, the Guinness Book of Records disallowed an application from a 14-year-old Nepalese boy Khagendra Thapa Magar who measures a meagre 53 cm but agreed to review his case when he turns 18.