"A person's physical stature does not limit his/her potential for work that does not rely on his/her physical stature"
Not sure i buy the argument. There is about 100 or so little people working there...How many of them can get jobs as an English teacher, yet alone a physics teacher..Maybe a couple! what about the rest of them?
Have you seen what happens to disabled people in china? Of course in a perfect world everyone would be equal and we would have no prejudice. Unfortunately that is not our world....What would you have these people do? go for the same jobs that a "normal" person would be after? I feel that would be like having a race and giving someone a head start!
Right or wrong These people need special situations in a country like china...In the west little people have better options, But here in china they are lucky to have a place..An amazing number of disabled people living in china are reduced to begging!
A rant like yours feels like it comes from a white middle class western place and sounds totally self serving. I mean, Its so nice of you to be the protector of the Chinese little person population ...But what else should they do...???
This debate cannot be resolved because in 'John Lennon's nutopia', an ideal world and paradise on earth, dwarves could become presidents of nations and movie stars.
And in 'Dante's Inferno', dwarves are relegated to street begging.
So is the middle ground of amusing the masses in a dwarf empire for half-decent wages good or bad? Depends on the reference point - nutopia or hell. And depends on which direction the entire planet is headed in.
I see: accept the cultural attitudes as unchangeable or eternal or something, and then attempt to protect the people from the culture. Martin Luther King perhaps once considered racial segregation as a protective measure for African Americans - but then he changed his mind.
Some how i knew you would play the race card! First, being black, white,yellow or brown does not change a person. or create a physical difference! Like it or not, wrong or right, being a little person does!
I don't have to "accept" anything...but i have to have a better idea before i slam a way of like for "disabled" people in china! I come from a place where many self righteous people live..(like you seem to be). They love to talk about how awful racism and discrimination is. Its easy to do sitting around a table sipping wine or posting on the net!
You bring up MLK..I hope you realize how ridiculous it is to compare yourself or your post to a hero of the american civil rights movement.....MLK had a plan! He had a vision! and most importantly he had a way to implement it ! Where is your plan, vision and your way to implement it???? I guess its easy to say "thats bad"!
Is it still in operation?
My plan is to stay the hell away from fantasy fairytale 'dwarf empire' ghettoes and encourage everyone else to do likewise.
Hey, even though in the USA it is illegal to discriminate against people's disabilities (Americans with Disabilities Act), it still happens all the time. Employers just come up with other reasons not to hire someone. And do not assume that little people have it so great in the Western world either. Many of them are actors who play bit parts as little people on TV shows, and have other jobs related to their stature. While having a village of them performing might seem like a very outdated thing by Western sensibilities, I have to halfway agree with the mother-in-law. These little people are using their disability to their own advantage, and there is something admirable about that.
Having been and spoken to the little people, they do seem genuinely content to be there. They have voluntarily travelled from all over China to join the attraction and told me of far more demeaning and demanding jobs they've been forced to do in their past. They claim there is a real community feeling and speak of friendships and love among other similarly sized people they would otherwise never have got the chance to meet. They did bemoan the attraction's leader who "makes them work and practice too hard", but that's not peculiar to their job or boss.
I agree with @tommann - whilst to western eyes it seems one step removed from Travelling Freak Shows, it's also not that far from Snow White pantomimes or Lucas's Ewoks. They get paid to use their special attributes in a positive way. To encourage people to stay away from the attraction is to damage their livelihood and condemn them to a much worse life. I say go there, support them, chat with them and treat them with the respect they deserve.
Let me ask again if this place is still in operation. Anybody been there recently?
