Tell it to Steven Hawking. A person's physical stature does not limit his/her potential for work that does not rely on his/her physical stature (e.g., English teaching, as well as physics). The cultural attitude that those who are discriminated against because they do not fit the culturally desired norm should be outcast or should be provided for by special environments that can be sold as entertainment venues to those who will not deal with their own prejudices is a cultural attitude that perpetuates discrimination against all who are 'different'. The problem here, as elsewhere, is a matter of dehumanizing those who are 'different' - prejudicial culture that regiments anything that deviates from its standards, rather than dealing with the prejudice itself. Why not have a theme park within which 'foreigners', with all their funny habits, can be kept, so that they do not disturb the 'normality' of cultural prejudices? Actually, there could be many: one for 'black people', one for Tibetans, one for Japanese, one for gay people, one for Han Chinese people who have given up their 'traditional' clothing for 'western-style' clothing (e.g., the great majority of Chinese, over the past century or so) - in fact we could subdivide and subdivide until nothing was left but mutual nonrecognition. All these would help to maintain the narrow identities of 'normality' that can be relied upon to advance support the cultural attitudes that promote the continuing inability of people to recognize each other as human, and to celebrate and accept their differences - not as entertainment items, no matter how 'cute', but as full human beings. How different is all this from apartheid?
This effort to maintain prejudice can, of course, be profitable to those who invest in it, and convenient for social engineers and political elites who want to maintain an elite power status by reliance on it.
The place is an insult to our common humanity and a spotlight on cultural attitudes of exclusion. Those who find that they enjoy such displays should take a good look at the nature of the culture that has formed them so narrowly. Cultures change; cultures have always changed; cultures are presently changing and will continue to do so; there is nothing sacred about cultural attitudes. Our common humanity is an ongoing project, and those who imagine they are not part of such a project are simply contributing their own blindness to it, and limiting themselves in the process. It's not the 'dwarves' who are the problem, its the people who will not accept them as within the boundaries of 'us'.
Mapping Yunnan's surprisingly hectic airspace
发布者Airplanes are for people who don't like to travel.
Great Britain in Kunming schedule of events
发布者Perhaps some Welshman or Scot may have to straighten me out, but since when have Wales and Scotland stopped being British? They are definitely under the same central government, and all are in the British Isles. The usual confusion here is when Wales & Scotland are included under the term 'English', and this is unfortunately the usual term used in Chinese.
Similarly, 'America' & 'American' seem to mean only the United States & its citizens, which is in fact the way most US citizens use the term. This has been annoying everybody else on the two continents for a very long time.
Then there is the ignorance which causes many people to use the word 'Arab' for everybody from Morocco to the Pakistani frontier, and to include virtually all of Central Asia under the same term.
Kunming cracking down on 'uncivilized' behavior...again
发布者@Laotou, don't worry, nothing will happen.
A quick guide to Kunming's Metro Line 2
发布者Sounds good. I propose a monthly transportation card allowing unlimited use of underground trains and buses for a set price, as in Paris (the Carte Orange), where it works well.
Yunnan tourism and real estate markets see investment top 2 trillion
发布者Ah. More amusement parks to promote and distort the understanding of history.