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.

Chen Hongli, 28, from the Little Ants Shadow Play Troupe, takes a photo during an outing of the troupe in a natural resort in Changping, Beijing, in March. Photo: Li Ming

No alternatives



Born in 1978 in a rural family in the suburb of Beijing in Daxing district, Li Ming, director of the Little Ants Shadow Play Troupe, was diagnosed with GHD at the age of 10. The treatment of growth hormone injections every day only continued for a year as they put the family in debt.

In 1995, he was coerced to cease schooling after graduating from a junior school. "My head teacher didn't give me the application form, saying no high school or vocational school would admit me," Li said.

Later the teacher recommended him to a private tourism reception complex near the Ming Tombs in Changping district, Beijing, where he worked for 13 years on various jobs like guide, doorman and cashier with eight other dwarfs. Their salary was always half of that of the other colleagues.

Gary Arnold, president of the Little People of America Inc., a support group  based in California providing care to individuals with dwarfism and their families, says that one method in the US is to use legal weapons to fight against injustice.

"In the past months, two dwarfs have filed discrimination complaints with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The dwarfs were fired in the restaurant industry after asking for accommodation," Arnold told the Global Times via e-mail.

In China, however, there have been no such attempts to seek redress via government agencies.

"Even when we know there's inequity, we dare not complain. At least they offered us a job," Li told the Global Times, adding that it's also common for employers to not pay any insurance to them.

For Li, the biggest issue is the disrespect. "Some employers deem that they are being charitable by employing little people. But what we need is not sympathy, but understanding and respect."

In the World Ecological Garden of Butterflies in Kunming, Yunnan Province, there's a "Dwarf Kingdom" with over 100 members.

"Many of us feel uncomfortable about the idea. The dwarfs are displayed like a mountain of monkeys in a zoo," Li said. "We hope others can recognize us by our knowledge and skills, not by our statures."

The garden's manager Chen Mingjing has defended it as a "pure charity" effort.

But Arnold says that this is not helping. "I do believe that if little people are put on display as entertainment simply because of their different stature, it does promote stigma and stereotypes, and might contribute to an environment in which it is more difficult for people with dwarfism to have the same opportunities as other people," he said.

But Arnold said it's understandable that some dwarfs agree to take those jobs as their options are limited, and suggested that the best course of action would be raising awareness about dwarfism and offer them wider range of employment options.

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.