How long would you take to memorize the order of a shuffled deck of 52 playing cards? Can you do it in one minute? Five minutes? Can you do it at all?

 

A young Chinese woman called Chen Yujuan did it in just 28.15 seconds at the recent 16th World Memory Championships held in

Manama, the capital city of Bahrain.

 

With that time Chen set a new world record for female players, ranking as world number two just behind Englishman Ben Pridmore, who finished in 26.28 seconds at the UK Open Memory Championship in July.

 

Ironically, Chen once fainted at her college entrance exam trying to recall an ancient poem.

 

When answering media questions over her spectacular memory, the Chaozhou native from southern China's Guangdong Province said that anyone can enhance their memory with the help of the right methods.

 

(CRI September 10, 2007)