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If you have 115 million dollars and 100 dwarfs, and the first thing you think of is: “Themepark!,” well, then you either need a bit of a morality check…or, you are just in China. Welcome to the Kingdom of the Little People. Yes, this is a real place, and, yes, that is exactly what they named it. What could make this worse? The creator, a shrewd business man from Sichuan, says he was inspired by nothing other than Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. But nevertheless, there it is, nestled not too far from the beautiful city of Kunming, one of China’s newest and oddest tourist traps.
And this isn’t any display of little people. They put a little flare into it. For $12 tourists can watch a show with exclusively costumed dwarfs engaging in humorous skits, group dances and acrobatics. Dig Triad reports,
“The show’s centrepiece, a farcical rendition of Swan Lake, sees performers both male and female dressed in pink tutus and pretending to be little swans. Around 100 tourists a day come to the kingdom and it’s a hit among local schools who bring bus loads of children to see the shows and wander around the village. The only qualification required for participants to be employed at the theme park is to be shorter than 51 inches and be self-sufficient in daily life. The youngest employee now is 18 and the oldest 48.”
You can find more details and some video, after the jump….
The workers at the theme park live together in a cave-like dormitory, and they share many of the chores and jobs of daily life. So far, the park itself mainly consists of the tree, 33 Dr. Seuss-style cottages with crooked chimneys where kingdom residents pretend to live. The NY Times reports that some are still settling into the idea, “Critics say displaying dwarfs is at best misguided and at worst immoral, a throwback to times when freak shows pandered to people’s morbid curiosity.
“I think it is horrible,” said Gary Arnold, the spokesman for Little People of America Inc., a dwarfism support group based in California. “What is the difference between it and a zoo?” Even the term “dwarf” is offensive to some; his organization prefers “person of short stature.”
But there is another view, and Mr. Chen and some of his short-statured workers present it forcefully. One hundred permanently employed dwarfs, they contend, is better than 100 dwarfs scrounging for odd jobs. They insist that the audiences who see the dwarfs sing, dance and perform comic routines leave impressed by their skills and courage.”
Either way, this is one way to shake off the old Disney World routine and take a break from Yunnan’s otherwise amazing scenery. Enjoy the video. Let us know if you visit. Happy Travels.
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