Boys pledge and chant before stripping to the waist for a run through a freezing Beijing park.
Boys warm up before the run with trainers.
Parents watch their boys and hold jackets at the park.
Boys warm up before the run. Tang Haiyan, on the left, instructs the boys.
Boys and trainers of the Real Man Training Club run through a Beijing Park in December 2018.
Parents take photo with their son after he finishes the run.
Boys have ginger tea to warm themselves after the run.
Tang Haiyan founded the Real Man Training Club to combat what he and others in China see as a masculinity crisis. On a cold winter day, I went on assignment for The LA Times to photograph a shirtless run organized by the Real Man Training Club. The youngest participant was only 7.
Yan Cong
Yan Cong is an independent photographer based in Beijing. She focuses most of her long-term projects on women’s issues, rural China, and China’s relations with its neighbors.