As we trudge through our day-to-day problems, it sometimes helps to remember that there are magical places in the world.  One worth contemplating is a mountain commune for dwarves only in Kunming, Southern China. There, you can see 120 miniature, elf-like people going about their real lives in fairy tale clothing, and living in mushroom shaped houses that they built for themselves. In contrast to the isolated Shangri-La’s or Madagascar’s of the past, however, this earthly paradise is developed out in the open, vulnerable to the political and economic challenges of mainstream life.  This group of dwarves voluntarily segregated themselves into this commune because they faced constant discrimination from tall people. They quickly developed a cash cow livelihood for the entire community when they began to charge tourists an entry fee to observe the 4’3” or shorter residents in their self-designed story-book community, complete with their own functioning police force and fire brigade.

Fairy tales in real life

While some may denounce the theme park motif as being similar to an exploitative situation, shouldn’t we pause and ask ourselves a couple of things.  First, isn’t it a different thing altogether when a group voluntarily (even happily) decides to monetize some aspect of its own novel condition?  Isn’t the widely popular NBA just a freak show of tall, strong people?  Isn’t the fashion industry just a freak show of well-proportioned people? Why shouldn’t dwarves organize and demand compensation for what makes them unique?! I even go so far as to say this particular theme park is superior to professional sports and the fashion industry, because instead of creating beauty from what is already desirable, these bold dwarves are creating something desirable out of what society looks down upon (literally!)  Killing it is knowing that our own personal utopia will not just appear, but that, it if comes at all, it may be because we’re facing so many problems that utopia is the only way out.