People of short stature fight against employment discrimination

Performers from Longzaitian perform a shadow play in their stationary theater near the south gate of Yuanmingyuan Park in Beijing on April 9. Photo: Huang Jingjing/GT

One of millions of dwarfs, or little people, in China, he models himself on legendary Argentinian soccer player Lionel Messi.

Messi was diagnosed with growth hormone deficiency (GHD) at the age of 11 and grew to a normal stature of 169 centimeters after years of continuous treatment.

"Messi is a role model. Following his success, he established a charity foundation, offering care for vulnerable children. I share the same ideals as him," said Chen Lizhang, founder of xiuzhenren.org, a Beijing-based institute called Home for People with GHD.

The non-profit organization, established in May 2010, was officially certified by the Dongcheng district civil affairs bureau last June, aiming at providing little people with medical care, employment guidance and psychological support.

Now the website is home to more than 2,000 registered little people across the country.

"More than just communicating in a virtual space, they need to return to real life. So we organize various off-line activities and clubs, helping them to become more confident," Yuan Nana, 31, the organization's manager and Chen's wife, also a dwarf, told the Global Times.

Though recognition of this group of people has grown, they still have a stigma attached to them. Most job vacancies open for them are with zoos, parks, circuses, hotels or art troupes.

"Making use of little people as a selling point to attract customers is not uncommon for many employers, and it's also unavoidable," Yuan said.

They are among a number of people who in recent years have been attempting to change public perceptions of this group of people in a variety of ways.

Widespread stigma

Qin Xueshi, born in 1986 and hailing from Jingzhou, Hubei Province, failed to reach his dream of being a surgeon even after graduating from the medical school of Central South University in 2009.

He stopped growing at the age of 8 as a result of GHD. He remains 125 centimeters tall.

During his hospital internship, he was widely mistaken for a child of a doctor. Even after being told the facts, no one agreed to be treated by him. To cheer him up, his grandma offered to be his first patient, having her appendix removed flawlessly. After that, he participated in about a dozen operations.

But still, he was plagued by a sense of inferiority and stress. After graduation, he joined the Longzaitian Puppet Shadow Troupe in Beijing.

Longzaitian, established in April 2008, is a troupe which currently has 72 little people performing shadow puppet plays.

"Most dwarfs have to pick up low-paid jobs such as being a doorman, cashier, street vendor or cell phone mender. And usually they are not respected," Lin Zhonghua, the troupe's general manager and founder, told the Global Times.

Tian Chenguang, 32, from Zibo, Shandong Province, was reluctant to recall his experience in a KTV in Beijing. The KTV employed several little people like Tian to work as ice cream salespeople.

"Some customers were deliberately offensive. They demanded that we sing in their arms or threw us around. Some took the ice cream without paying. Some just threw us out of the room or held our clothes when they were not happy," Tian, now a member staff in Longzaitian, told the Global Times.

Even though the salary is only half of what he received at his previous job, Tian was happy to leave and join Longzaitian in November 2011.

Most dwarfs are from remote, often mountainous regions, where there is poor awareness of health issues. Even after an accurate diagnosis, they can't afford the high medical fees to treat the condition. "In addition, some education institutions always shut door to this group of people and they are often forced to quit school earlier," Lin noted.

The schools either feared the short kids would cause additional trouble, tarnish the school's image or affect enrollment rates, reports said.