“Critics say displaying dwarfs is at best misguided and at worst immoral, a throwback to times when freak shows pandered to people’s morbid curiosity.

…

But there is another view, and Mr. Chen and some of his short-statured workers present it forcefully. One hundred permanently employed dwarfs, they contend, is better than 100 dwarfs scrounging for odd jobs. They insist that the audiences who see the dwarfs sing, dance and perform comic routines leave impressed by their skills and courage.”

Read more at the New York Times

Throughout the article, the authors refer to “dwarfism” as a disability and “persons of short stature” as “the disabled”. I found this strange while reading because I never considered “persons of short stature” to be disabled. After checking Wikipedia and performing a Google search, dwarfism is considered a medical condition under the American with Disabilities Act.

The question at debate in the article is, “Is the ‘Kingdom of the Little People’ in China degrading or empowering?”