Tell it to Steven Hawking. A person's physical stature does not limit his/her potential for work that does not rely on his/her physical stature (e.g., English teaching, as well as physics). The cultural attitude that those who are discriminated against because they do not fit the culturally desired norm should be outcast or should be provided for by special environments that can be sold as entertainment venues to those who will not deal with their own prejudices is a cultural attitude that perpetuates discrimination against all who are 'different'. The problem here, as elsewhere, is a matter of dehumanizing those who are 'different' - prejudicial culture that regiments anything that deviates from its standards, rather than dealing with the prejudice itself. Why not have a theme park within which 'foreigners', with all their funny habits, can be kept, so that they do not disturb the 'normality' of cultural prejudices? Actually, there could be many: one for 'black people', one for Tibetans, one for Japanese, one for gay people, one for Han Chinese people who have given up their 'traditional' clothing for 'western-style' clothing (e.g., the great majority of Chinese, over the past century or so) - in fact we could subdivide and subdivide until nothing was left but mutual nonrecognition. All these would help to maintain the narrow identities of 'normality' that can be relied upon to advance support the cultural attitudes that promote the continuing inability of people to recognize each other as human, and to celebrate and accept their differences - not as entertainment items, no matter how 'cute', but as full human beings. How different is all this from apartheid?
This effort to maintain prejudice can, of course, be profitable to those who invest in it, and convenient for social engineers and political elites who want to maintain an elite power status by reliance on it.
The place is an insult to our common humanity and a spotlight on cultural attitudes of exclusion. Those who find that they enjoy such displays should take a good look at the nature of the culture that has formed them so narrowly. Cultures change; cultures have always changed; cultures are presently changing and will continue to do so; there is nothing sacred about cultural attitudes. Our common humanity is an ongoing project, and those who imagine they are not part of such a project are simply contributing their own blindness to it, and limiting themselves in the process. It's not the 'dwarves' who are the problem, its the people who will not accept them as within the boundaries of 'us'.
China's first 'school of yoga' to be established in Kunming
发布者@Petrer: while I was busy not making the obvious Gandhara/Kandahar id (yeah - damn I knew that!) it occurred to me that Alexander's name in Persian languages is pronounced Sikander (a men's name used even today in Afghanistan), so I thought of Si(x)-kandar > Kandahar - ever thought of that one? Sheer speculation, no digging for any sources.
China's first 'school of yoga' to be established in Kunming
发布者Kandahar/Gandhara - yeah, I think I knew that but forgot. But I'd think it would have been Dali, during the Nanzhao & Dali Kingdoms, that would have been called in Sanskrit(?), rather than Kunming. I take it you're saying that Qiantuoluo is a transliteration of Gandhara into Chinese? Sounds like it could be; and then the Tuo > Tuodong (east, yeah). Which tuo is it and what does it mean?
Logical - are there documents or steles or something in/on which the writers themselves make these connections?
China's first 'school of yoga' to be established in Kunming
发布者@Peter: I've never heard that Kunming was ever called East Kandahar, or that the name Tuodong was ever associated with Kandahar. Kandahar is in southern Afghanistan today, but the Old City of Kandahar (the Zor Shar), where I participated on an archaeological dig some 40 years ago, had 'Greek' style remains that allowed us to identify it as one of many 'Alexandrias' taken over (remains at Zor Shar go back a couple thousand years before Alexander's armies) and renamed by the Macedonaian/Greek armies of Alexander the Great and/or the Hellenistic Empire that followed it. The Kandahar area of Afghanistan, as well as much of the Indian subcontinent, was later part of the (Buddhist) Mauryan Empire, centered in what is today's India - wouldn't be surprised if the Mauryans claimed all of Bengal, which included what is now Bangladesh, and perhaps the foreigner kingdoms of what became Burma and called it all something. However, there is no indication that any of the Hellenistic rulers or the Mauryans ever conquered, or even invaded, the Kunming area, although it wouldn't be surprising if they heard of it and claimed it, as conquerors are wont to claim anything they hear of. But I don't know the origin of the name Kandahar, in Afghanistan or anywhere else.
Myanmar-Thailand-Laos-China: 4 countries, 4 days, 400 yuan
发布者If you go via Luang Nam Tha, check out the Bamboo Lounge restaurant there, which has an ongoing program of helping to provide textbooks, with part of its profits and with a contribution from an anonymous donor, for the schoolkids of the area, most of whom do not have them at present.
China's first 'school of yoga' to be established in Kunming
发布者The late Sam Mitchell, whose PhD was in Indian History, and who had a great love for India and Indian culture, played a part in establishing and advancing connections between Kunming and Rabinra Bharati University before his unfortunate death in Kolkata in 2011. I once had the privilege of hearing him go on at dizzying length on Indian metaphysics with a very bright US student upstairs in Salvador's.