I remember when I was in high school, I had to write a paper for an English class. The teacher complimented me on how well I had written it. He was quite an encourager, and I’m sure he told the same thing to everyone to inspire them to do their best. (He might be surprised at how I’ve wasted any of this supposed writing talent if he were to read the rubbish I blog.) I still recall how he said that my writing had potential. Well now I know what he meant.

Headline Telegraph: The Chinese go crazy for the Guinness Book of Records with some feats you’d never dream of

China is a country of excess. It has the world’s largest population (1.3 billion), the biggest army reserve (206 million), the longest wall (2,150 miles) and carries out more executions than anywhere else on earth (1,750 a year).

Now its people - driven by their innate competitiveness, and the appointment of the first Guinness World Records liaison officer in China - are laying claim to a host of new titles: the world’s oldest opera singer (93 years old), for example, and the longest karaoke session (100 hours).

For five decades of strict Communism, the pursuit of individual glory was frowned upon. Now, a craze for record-breaking is sweeping the nation. Annual sales of the Guinness book have risen to 30,000 copies since it was first published in Mandarin in the late 1990s.

Hmmm. Only 30,000 copies of the Guinness book of records have been sold in China to 1.3 billion people? Put that in proportion. That would be like selling 7,000 copies in the United States (with a population of roughly 300 million). Those kind of sales will not quite put you on the list of best sellers, so I’m not sure why the article presents the annual sales of 30,000 copies as if it were a large number.

But to return to the point. Some people say that China has the potential to return mankind to the moon. Some say that it will be a military power to rival the United States. Guinness World Records Chinese liaison officer, Wu Xiaohong, has bigger dreams.

Miss Wu said: “We have so many people, and we can organise many people to break records - like the 10,000 children who recently brushed their teeth simultaneously in Shenzhen. This country has so much potential.”

Someday, I hope that I can attain my full potential and write to the level of 10,000 children brushing their teeth simultaneously.