Recently, schools in Shanghai have started using a gendered textbook for boys, which purports to help boys gain "gender knowledge" and develop a sense of responsibility and maturity.
Girls outperform boys across the board in school, a pattern repeated across the developed world but which is often taken to signal a "crisis" of masculinity.
Media outlets blamed 'feminine' men on a lack of paternal education and the influence of Japanese and Korean culture. Supporters said the first gender textbook is challenging and innovative, and could promote boys' "manly" development.
But critics pointed out that fixed gender notions are often counter-productive, that practical education and social experience matters more than textbooks, and that children should be free to develop their own sense of varied gender identity instead of being forced into cookie-cutter molds.
Zhang Meimei, director of Gender Education Center at Capital Normal University, warned that a sense of responsibility is far more important than engendering masculine stereotypes. Fang Gang, an expert of sex and sexual research, noted gender education could not over-emphasize masculinity, since the courage and responsibility are for both genders.
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