The Dwarf Empire: China's theme park staffed by little people – in pictures

The World Eco Garden of Butterflies and the Dwarf Empire, also known as the Kingdom of the Little People, is a fantasy theme park in Yunnan province, created in 2009, where 100 little people live and work, entertaining tourists with song and dance routines. Belgian photographer Sanne De Wilde spent two weeks in the kingdom, and this is what she saw

• Inside China’s Dwarf Empire

Tue 2 Sep 2014 13.39 EDT First published on Tue 2 Sep 2014 13.38 EDT

  • .The park is ‘ruled’ by an emperor, seen here enjoying some downtime, and an empress.

  • Two security guards hold up one of the park’s workers. ‘Perhaps the most dramatic, but not the most representative’ of the images, say De Wilde.

  • De Wilde: ‘In the brochures, it looks colourful and a little fantastic ... but the reality is much greyer and a little sad’.

  • De Wilde was interested in capturing ‘the creation of a fantasy that was paper-thin and yet that the visitors bought into’.

  • The twice-daily performances, which Wilde had ‘no interest’ in shooting, typically include Qigong, scenes from ballet and hip-hop dances.

  • ‘I was interested in how the performers lived between the two daily shows,’ De Wilde says.

  • ‘In the west we obsess about happiness, but for them, as for most people in China, happiness does not come into it,’ De Wilde says.

  • De Wilde says that many of the workers in the park described it as “a wonderful place and even a kind of paradise”.

  • ‘I didn’t want a series where people were looking upwards all the time … so I started shooting while crouched down,’ says De Wilde.

  • De Wilde’s book includes ‘anti-postcards’ of ‘the reality of daily life in the park’.

  • The performers live in specially constructed accessible dormitories.

  • The park provides, says De Wilde, ‘not just a community but a sense of belonging’ for the performers.

  • The translator hired by De Wilde deflected many of her questions for the performers, saying, ‘No, we don’t need to go there.’

  • The park was founded in 2009 by real estate developer Chen Mingjing.

  • De Wilde was keenly aware of the ethical issues raised by the project: ‘I did not want as a photographer to become part of the problem that I was trying to highlight’.

  • De Wilde also become a photo opportunity for curious tourists. ‘It was as if I was becoming this tall, white, blond-haired Snow White figure that they also wanted to photograph constantly.’
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