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小矮人王国 - Kingdom of the Dwarfs
Posted in: Forums > Travel Yunnan

• Posted by: TheSwedishGuy
  Posted: Tuesday, 22nd September 2009
  I don't know if you have heard of this place. It's somewhere in Haikou. A village only with people with short statures. Pay the entrance fee and you can watch these people perform.
  
  When I first heard this I pictured myself obscure freak shows from a hundred years back. I ended up having a fight with my Chinese family about it. Let me quote what my mother in law said
  
  "They can't work anywhere, they are disabled people, so we have a village for them to live and be happy in. No one would hire a dwarf. In China we have villages like this for all kinds of people, like fat people, disabled people. This way they can get a steady income every month since people come and see them perform."
  
  I really didn't know what to say to this... I for one thought it was completely outrageous that anyone with some kind of disability can't get a job. Then again women who has children can't get jobs either. I might have a "bad China day" but after 3 years in China, China keeps on surprising me with completely insane ways of dealing with "problems".
  
  What do you guys think? Is this kind of place completely outrageous and inhumane or should we beleive the Chinese propaganda saying that "They are happy like never before inside this compund"
• Posted by: Tonyaod
  Posted: Tuesday, 22nd September 2009
  Guy, I share your disbelief but there is no point in bringing Western sensibilities into China and trying to view them in western light.
  
  Having a large population is a double edge-sword. On the one hand you have a lot of man power, hence the manufacturing dominated economy in China. On the other, how do you handle the percentage of the population that can not contribute to society.
  
  Place yourself in the shoes of typical Chinese employer. For every 1 job posting you have 100+ candidates to choose from. Would you pick dwarf, pregnant teens, wheelchair bound, etc? Due to the number of applicants, employers routinely use various criterion to get down to a manageable list to people to interview. The sales reps that sells cellphone are asked if they achieved level-4 English proficiency on their application even though they would probably never come into contact with foreigners, and as if every foreigner in China speaks English.
  
  It's a simple case of supply and demand. There are surplus unskilled labor than there is demand. When you buy fruit do you routinely pick the bruised and partially rotted fruit or do you pick the best looking one?
  
  We might feel aghast at treating humans this way but this is the best way the Chinese government can deal with the situation right now. It's a matter of volume, so your mother-in-law is correct in that these people probably will have a hard time finding work.
  
  Go back a hundred years or so in our culture and we will see that we did the same thing a la the freakshows and the circus.
  
  So, don't argue with it...Turn the other way when you see things like this unless you want to take on politics and become a social activist. Look into joining an NGO perhaps.
• Posted by: TheSwedishGuy
  Posted: Tuesday, 22nd September 2009
  I've thought of the same things as you mentioned Tonyaod. Just can't get used to some things in this country though. Double-edged sword or not, the populationproblem is really a huge problem in this country. It changes peoples atitudes too. My old employer didn't seem to care if a Chinese employee left or not because "There are thousands more out there..." leaving out the fact that we will never have experienced personal.
  
  I am not too outraged by the fact that such a place exists I am just constantly astonished by the Chinese lack of interest in change and constantly blaming everything bad or wrong on the same things. "Culture is different", "Too many people." and "How can thousands of years doing something be wrong?"
  
  Then again I can understand them, faced by all the issues in this country I don't even know where to start myself (Homeless children, polution, endangered species etc etc.) and thus most of the time turn my back on things.
• Posted by: Xiefei
  Posted: Wednesday, 23rd September 2009
  On the other hand, companies in China actually get tax breaks for hiring disabled people.
• Posted by: bongzilla
  Posted: Thursday, 1st October 2009
  Careful, you're being watched: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/[...]
• Posted by: BradenLJH
  Posted: Friday, 2nd October 2009
  I hate to add on to the feeling of being watched, but I would love to speak more with you both, TheSwedishGuy and Tonyaod. I am a filmmaker in the area and I was hoping to get a few more interviews about the subject (you would not have to be in front of the camera if you do not wish). I am very interested in speaking with the both of you, as you both bring up the great level of complexities of the issue. Speaking with both of you would be invaluable, if you are both willing to provide me with a few minutes of your time to speak more about this, feel free to e-mail me at lathamjones [at] gmail [d o t] com. Thanks so much!!
• Posted by: chris
  Posted: Thursday, 8th October 2009
  GoKunming visited the park a few days ago to get a firsthand look at the park. Here's what we found:
  
  http://www.gokunming.com/[...]
• Posted by: nnoble
  Posted: Thursday, 8th October 2009
  According to numerous copy cat blogs and even national newspapers repeating this story around the world, we in Kunming are now deemed to be living in a 'small mountain community'.

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