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Letter From Beijing
China goes hard on 'soft boys'
But campaign to get schools to expand PE lessons draws criticism from netizens
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BEIJING - Whenever education business owner Xiong Xiao's five-year-old son sees androgynous pop stars on TV or on billboards in Beijing, he would point to them and ask: "Why do boys wear makeup?" or "Are they boys or girls?".
Those questions worry Madam Xiong, 32, who fears her son would come under the influence of these "xiao xian rou" and become an effeminate boy.
