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 to monitor bad tourist behavior
发布者Disposal and slurping are both Chinese culture - I think poor disposal is something to be corrected, as it causes collective problems; slurping does not, within China, except for many of the relatively few foreigners; internationally it may be a pain to see it in many foreign countries, but you can't learn everything about every foreign culture all at once - I've been in China awhile and, hopefully, am still learning. Learning about foreign customs is something that people might be taught, however. In case anybody's interested, I generally don't slurp, and my non-slurping doesn't seem to offend anyone here.
China to monitor bad tourist behavior
发布者Exactly.
China to monitor bad tourist behavior
发布者@Alex: you know what Chinese people want? Isn't 'what Chinese people want' a cultural question? If they all wanted to be monitored, would that settle the issue for you?
Culture card.
China to monitor bad tourist behavior
发布者@Alex: I didn't intend to pull any culture cards and don't think I did - but if you want to claim that Chinese people want to be monitored etc. then I think you're pulling a culture card (i.e., this is what Chinese people want and we shouldn't interfere).
I'm not attacking you & don't want to go on about this, but I think that's, in effect, what you have done in your last post.
China to monitor bad tourist behavior
发布者@Alex: The Chinese government proposes and enjoys running a police state (well, perhaps not quite a police state). What does this have to do with desires of Chinese people to be monitored alla time, or desires not to be monitored, either within China or abroad?