A refuge-and kingdom-where little people rule

Performers at the Kingdom of the Little People in Kunming dance in front of a screen showing a computer-generated animation of block people replicating the choreography of the music video for the Korean pop hit Gangnam Style.[Photo by Erik Nilsson/China Daily]

Cue the death metal.

Then the dancers: dozens of little people.

Dynastic warriors with fluttering capes bebop among "butterfly princesses" with frilly-white dresses and gauzy-pink wings.

The dwarves descend from mountainside mushroom-dwellings, reminiscent of Smurfs'. For some reason, all wear metallic goggles.

But the snarl of German industrial-outfit Raamstein's Du Hast (A homophonic title translating as You Hate and You Have) abruptly halts with the second song - Celine Dion's love ballad, My Heart Will Go On.

The dancers change tempo without missing a beat. Next, a tightrope walker teeters - then skitters - across the sky above the crowd.

Soon, the kingdom's 1-meter-tall monarch vrooms out on a motorbike tricycle. That's before the performers re-choreograph Gangnam Style in front of a massive screen showing a version of the music video featuring computer-generated, blocky renderings of the global megahit's crew.

Media have lauded performers' slapstick takes on Swan Lake and the breakdancing by a leather-clad dwarf with a crimson mohawk.

Welcome to the Kingdom of the Little People. It's an unconventional - and controversial - entertainment venue on an isolated alp outside Yunnan's provincial capital Kunming, where the more than 100 employees with dwarfism contend they can claim the most sovereignty over their fates. The park has sparked controversy since its 2009 founding.

It's at best a "charity base camp" (signage names it as such) where little people find camaraderie, employment and admiration, and at worst, a "human zoo" harking to freak-show days, critics claim.

Real estate tycoon Cheng Mingjing declared aspirations to employ 1,000 little people, who could stay until retirement, after the park's 2009 founding.

He also voiced ambitions for performers to pour out of a vehicle resembling a UFO. Neither happened. The question still rages as to whether the kingdom is a haven from, or for, discrimination against little people.