Maybe the government could put them on a reservation, but they couldn't keep them from opening a theater? I don't know much about it though.
EDIT: http://www.gokunming.com/en/blog/item/1168/inside_kunmings_dwarf_empire
That makes it not sound so bad. It sounds like someone decided to employ people that are considered disabled in their country. It's true they could have done other jobs, but would they have found work in China? I don't know as I don't live there.
However it seems somewhat humiliating being part of a human zoo so to speak. That said, normal people can dress up like Disney characters; why is hiring short people for something specifically designed for short people such a terrible thing in a theatrical setting?
Yeah, it's kind of a moral gray zone. Honestly, this is probably one of the better outcomes as far as China is concerned. There's a downright appalling lack of care for the disabled and people with deformities. And by that, I don't just mean there's not enough care facilities/services, but rather that people just don't give a shit. I will never forget this poor legless bastard in Shanghai dragging himself and his begging bowl along the sidewalk down by the Bund (touristy area), and people just stepped around or
over him. Half his face looked like runny plastic, so I'm guessing it was an industrial accident, either fire or acid. So yeah...while being a dwarf isn't nearly as crippling as that, at least it gives them a chance of community with others like themselves, and hopefully access to some basic services.
You have to understand that stuff like political correctness as we know it in the West is barely even conceived of in most of Chinese society. Beijing sports an Ethnic Minority theme park, which used to proudly bear a sign awkwardly translated into English as "Racist Park". >_<
Outside of a few cosmopolitan cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Hong Kong, people will stare at you if you're Caucasian or black, because you may be the first real non-Chinese person they've ever seen in their life. Get far enough out into the countryside and they might just walk up to you and gently poke you to see if you're real, or feel your hair if it's anything far from straight and black. It's not rudeness, it's not racism, it's just sort of an innocent naivete. A lot seem to regard the rest of the world as a Planet of Hats. Two of the PLA guards on the Great Wall that I chatted with briefly thought I was either German or Russian, because I have dark hair and at that point had several weeks' growth of beard. I let them try to guess, and one said I was Russian because I had a thick beard. The other said he didn't smell any alcohol on me, so he thought I might be German.
They were surprised because their image of Americans was
heavily influenced by the American TV they get there. Which consisted mostly of
24,
Friends, and Houston Rockets' games. So they think that we all are tan and buffed and carry guns, that shootouts and violent bank robberies are commonplace, and that when we finish a hard day's work shooting each other, we go back to our spacious apartment that we share with our wacky group of friends and proceed to cheer on Yao Ming.
So yeah. "Dwarf Empire" is kinda par for the course, in terms of cultural sensitivity. But on the other hand, it's still got a exploitation feel to it. It's like if they had "Albino Land" or something. I dunno, it's hard for me to judge stuff sometimes because I can understand that it's ignorance, not real malice. But sometimes it's still just not OK. Like when I visited a zoo in Hangzhou. Let's just say we cut our trip short because I ragequit the zoo.
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Topic: Real life Dwarf Empire (In china, of all places) (Read 1916 times)