Kingdom of the Little People (小矮人王国)
The Kingdom of the Little People (小矮人王国) is a theme park, located near Kunming, which is the capital and largest city of the Yunnan Province, Southwest China, and features performances by people of all ages who were born with dwarfism.
Otherwise named as the “Dwarf Empire”, this theme park was first established, rather recently, in 2009 and employs over 100 people whose ages range from 19 to 48. According to Chen Mingjing, the wealthy real estate investor who created it, there are three basic requirements to become an employ in this “kingdom”:
No one should carry any infectious diseases.
No one can be older than 50 years old.
No one should be taller than 4 Feet 3 / 51 inches / 130 cm.
The Kingdom of the Little People has created worldwide controversy, as to whether such an establishment, works as a shelter for people that suffer from dwarfism since the day they were born, or as a miniature circus for curious tourists and visitors, that become entertained and amused by the site. Despite the ambivalent role which this park serves, dispute rises over the living conditions and circumstances under which its employees sign up to live by.
More specifically the employees decide independently to work in the “Dwarf Empire” due to mainly social and financial problems, which result from these rare birth defections. Facing discrimination and a variety of prejudices around their condition every day of their life, they are driven away from their hometowns only to be hired as entertainers in an accepting community of people with similar health issues. Also, because of their physical disabilities, people with dwarfism find much difficulty in acquiring jobs outside of their park and are forced to depend on their families to achieve a decent and sufficient livelihood. As a result, this theme park works as a refuge and harbour for these people to be independent (in a certain context) and make their own salary (from 1.000 to 3.000 rnb or between $120 and $175 per month, depending on their role). As a result, and with the park being located almost an hour away from central Kunming, inside the mountains, the Kingdom of the Little People offers its employees an isolated, from the city, life, where they are free to express themselves and live a little more by their own rules.
As Yang Lichun an employ of the company says: “Back home, strangers will stare at and they look down on us. If we can even find jobs at home, we have to work harder than everyone else to prove and provide ourselves.”
Or Yi Shaobo “I didn’t come here for the money. I came because it made me happy, people at the factory that I used to work, had to always help me with my job, and I wanted to be independent.”
These employees not only work as performers but also as accountants, salesmen and preventatives of the company, creating this way a self-sufficient community almost completely on their own. They are also offered food, supplies and accommodation in nearby dormitories, which sadly create a less than standard quality of life. Men and women are located on different levels of a two floor building which only contains about 20 smalls rooms for at least 100 workers’, a number rather small, leading to all of them living under claustrophobic and suffocating conditions, with no personal space whatsoever. In addition, Chen Mingjing provides English lessons for his employees to help them interact better with the foreign tourists.
The performers sing, dance and perform onstage in various ways, such as performing pieces of slapstick comedy, modern hip-hop dances, scenes from fairy tales or ballets such as the “Swan Lake”; examples that respond to all kinds of tastes to visitors of the “Kingdom”. The dwarfs are not and are not required to be, for the most part, accomplished singers, comedians or Qi Gong masters. The performances also sometimes feature a “Dwarf king”, who is only about 3.3 Feet tall (100 cm) and often wears a gold silk cape and rides a three-wheeled motorcycle. Moreover, the actors pretend to be living in small mushroom shaped houses which one could compare to the “Smurf Village” of the renowned comic franchise.
The Kingdom of the Little People has been criticized harshly and found disapproval by several international organizations such as the Little People of America and Handicap International, which emphasize that this theme park resembles the freak shows of the past and exploits its workers not only from their health conditions, but also from their quality of life, which is rather low, in contrast to the rest of society. Critics, also, comment that the park works as a mark of isolation for its workers from society; and as the company has not been founded by the dwarfs themselves, it is certain that since its opening, it has not been there to serve the needs and ambitions of its current workers, but of Chen Mingjing’s who invested in its formation and construction. Therefore it serves more as an opportunity for the economic growth and profit of its founder, rather than, as a shelter and social service for people that are affected by dwarfism.
The creator of the park contrasts the aforementioned arguments with claims, such as the fact that this business provides employment for many people who would otherwise be unemployed, allowing them to build self-respect and be encountered in an accepting society (with a minimum of discrimination coming probably only from the visitors and tourists). He moreover argues that the park diminishes the workers’ sense of loneliness and lack of understanding, which all prevail in the communities and towns that they come from.
No matter the conditions and beliefs under which this park was built and is operated, it still cannot be denied that it widely resembles some kind of a modern miniature circus, which actually brings the term “amusement” under serious examination and questioning of nowadays social beliefs and morals. The Kingdom Of the Little People will always be considered a dicey topic, especially given the underlying social attitude of migrant work which prevails in China, and the past history of China’s ethnic minorities continually being rounded up and displayed in shows aiming for “entertainment”.