Inside China’s training camps, where boys are learning how to be men
- Former physical education teacher is helping soft sons find their lost masculinity
- More than 20,000 children have taken part in the courses
On a chilly autumn morning, 18 young boys braved strong winds for a day of training at the foot of Fenghuang Mountain in western Beijing.
Wearing headbands reading “Tough Guy” and chanting slogans such as “Who is the best? I am the best”, “Who are we? We are the man”, they were there to learn all about focus, cooperation and competition through lectures, games and American football.
It was the fifth day of an 18-day course held on weekends for boys aged seven to 11 that aims to rescue them from their day-to-day, all-female environment and prevent them from being “oversensitive, vulnerable, whiny, petty or irresponsible”.
Members of the Boys’ Club recite declarations of manhood at the beginning of lectures, which include subjects such as safeguarding their country, honour and dreams.
They make vows to be ambitious and competent as an eagle, smart and kind as a dolphin and persistent and down-to-earth as a horse.
The boys address each other as “comrade” or tongzhi, which literally means to share the same ambition.
