Built by a real estate mogul, The Kingdom of the Little People seems like the kind of amusement park you would only find in China. This “Dwarf Empire” in Kunming, Southwest China, only employs people with dwarfism who are under 4′ 3″ tall, and has around 100 employees who live and work at the park. There is the “front of house” – an outdoor stage with a backdrop of cute little mushroom houses, where the little people perform for gawking big people, mostly domestic tourists. Then there are the dorms where the little people actually live, which are out of sight of the public and are not shaped like mushrooms, but like normal housing that human beings like to live in. The idea behind The Kingdom of the Little People is that life for people with dwarfism is difficult in China; they are subject to discrimination, prejudice and (cough) exploitation, none of which they apparently experience as employees of The Kingdom of the Little People. Sounds a little like segregation to me. But in photos they all look so happy and jolly! Maybe they are, who knows. One person who went to see the Dwarf Empire in person is Karl Pilkington for his travel show An Idiot Abroad. You can check out his interpretation after the jump, as well as his discussion about the politics of the place with Warwick Davis (aka Willow) and some photos of The Kingdom of the Little People.
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