A picture showing a troop of boys standing to form a shadow to shelter female soldiers from the scorching sun has gone viral online.

[Photo/Sina Weibo]

First reported on www.dahe.cn, the official website of Henan-based Dahe Daily, the males from the Nineteenth Middle School of Zhengzhou, provincial capital Henan province were hailed as teenage heroes full of masculine strength, battering people's prejudice of the spoiled post 1990s generation.

Or could the act of chivalry but seen as sexist to the image of female fighters?

On Aug 14, the last day of the military training for high school freshmen, the monitor from Class Ten organized more than 20 of his male classmates to stand up and let the girls sit in their shadow during a break after a girl expressed the wish.

Fu Yunfeng, the mentor of the class, said she feels highly proud of her boy students, mischievous for the most time, but responsible and caring at moments of need.