People of short stature fight against employment discrimination(3)

Out from the shadows

Li Ming's troupe now has 19 dwarf members. But his ambitions do not stop there. He hopes to one day establish a cultural industrial park and a pension foundation for little people.

Neither Lin and Li deny that they highlight the dwarfs when promoting their troupes.

"When advertising, we will magnify that factor. And we don't think it's improper that they come to see the play out of curiosity about little people," Lin said.

They point out that increasing the number of visitors can help sustain the "shadow play" art form which is fading away despite being one of China's 30 intangible cultural heritage items listed by UNESCO, and that visitors can develop their knowledge and views after seeing their performance, Lin explained.

"We came here out of an interest in shadow plays instead of little people. It's a profession and they are respected," Zhang Guoqing from Fushun, Liaoning Province, told the Global Times after watching Longzaitian's 40-minute performance.

Zhang, his wife, and 5-year-old son, together with other three adults and one kid were the only audience in the theater with 300-plus seats (60 yuan per ticket). In peak times like summer holidays, the theatre can be fully seated, according to the ticket seller.

"I think their performance is terrific and I will tell my friends to be here when they travel to Beijing," Zhang noted.

But many dwarfs who have no special artistic talents are still struggling to make a living.

Lu Jiarui, president of the Little People Union in China and an editor of zenggao.org, a non-profit website on growth and development, said the jobs offered to dwarfs are quite limited. "They are mainly art performers, computer workers, guides for children's photography and nail painters," Lu told the Global Times.

The union now mainly helps with raising awareness, job hunting and forging friendships among little people. "Many employers rejected us to avoid unnecessary accusations of using child labor," she noted.

Large small group

A survey result unveiled at the recent Chinese Children's Growth &Development Forum showed that China has a population of 39 million dwarfs, including 7 million aged between 4 and 15, but only 4 percent of them are receiving medical treatment.

Luo Xiaoping, a leading expert on dwarfism from the Chinese Medical Association, said poor knowledge of the disease from both parents and grass-roots medical staff, as well as high medical expenses, were key problems.

Most dwarfs interviewed said all hospitals or clinics firstly wrongly diagnosed the problem as malnutrition or delayed growth and prescribed calcium or zinc supplements or cod liver oil. Some desperate parents even resorted to witches or Shamans.

According to Luo, early intervention can result in an average or near average height.

Yuan Nana has other concerns. China has included the treatment of GHD in medical insurance in 2007. But due to differing financial situations in different regions, only several cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Hangzhou have implemented the policy.

In addition, some medicines for GHD have disappeared due to the smaller profit margin, Yuan said, calling on the government subsidize related drug producers.

"Recently, we've found that the HCG, a fertility drug, as well as one major medicine for male GHD patients, is no longer available in drug stores or hospitals," she said.

She said the main reason is that its major consumer, pregnant women, have turned to a new substitute drug. Due to the sharp decrease in consumers, the drug manufacturers started to stop production. "Now, we are preparing to write to the authorities over the issue," she said.

Growing taller is a greatest dream for most dwarfs. But Chen Lizhang said his greatest wish is that "passers-by no longer ask 'is this your grandson?' when I have an outing with my mother."

Some dwarfs have turned to entertainment channels to spread awareness. A TV drama featuring a story of a dwarf mother helping her adopted daughter to search for birth parents is set to hit four TV channels starting April 18.

"I hope this drama can let more people know about the group of little people," Zhu Jie, 25, an actor from Inner Mongolia who plays the mother, told the Global Times.