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'.
Rural Yunnan township takes flak for alcohol ban
Posted byI would think that bans on smoking in many environments in most parts of China would encounter similar disapproval by the majority of people, whether one considers it to be a good idea or not.
Saying goodbye to old friends: The ballad of Cas and John
Posted byMany of us who were around in the early 2000's are well aware of just how important John and Cas have been in the development of the local Western-derived local music culture - over the past 13 years there have been others as well, whom I do not mention here by name, despite their significance, simply out of a desire to be brief - but those who have come later and are not all that familiar with this development should understand that the Kunming laowai scene they found on arrival was the product of a lot of people and events that should entire history as we should know it.
I occasionally go to Chiang Mai, and I do not for a moment believe that this story, of music and enthusiasts and good irrascible performers, has come to and end - it's just spreading out.
Stories come to an end, but people are part of a longer phenomenon that does not.
Yunnan authorities discover girl who spent five years tied to wall
Posted byIncomes and social services and education in rural areas, in China as well as in a great many places, are appalling, not in comparison to what they once were, but in comparison to what they could be if the economy and the state worked well to put resources where they are needed.
Lijiang bug-eating contest draws national attention, and that may be the point
Posted byCrass nonsense. 'Entertainment' tourism...can't anybody think of anything other than 'entertainment' anymore?
Summer rainy season begins in earnest across Yunnan
Posted byWeird year - warm January, plenty of rain & lower temps than usual in April, late beginning of summer rains.