The stage lights glared down at the five dancers in a stadium in Wuhan on October 10.

The dancers, wearing thick makeup, high-heel shoes, silk stockings and miniskirts, shook their hips sensually on the stage.

They were all men - members of the Alice Cross-Dressers Association - and they were holding the show to celebrate the group's three-year anniversary.

More than 1,000 screaming fans had come from across China to attend the gala, which brought in tens of thousands of yuan in ticket sales.

Hao Ge, the head of the association who also performed in the show, had something else on his mind: a local media report that had criticized the association for "corrupting social values and morals".

According to the report, many people have accused the association of misleading young people, and some had even started a campaign against it. They called the members "Thai transvestites" and said they might cause youngsters to have wrong perceptions of gender.

"I said repeatedly that we're performers and lovers of Cosplay. We are totally different from Thai transvestites. Why did they accuse us of doing something we have never done?" a furious Hao said to the Global Times.

The association has gone through great challenges and come under huge pressure from tradition, society, their own parents, relatives and friends, for featuring cross-dressing in their act. In a society where concerns are being raised over Chinese boys becoming more effeminate, the association has been accused of "leading young people astray."

Early days

Established in October 2009, the association was, at one point, close to being dissolved due to its members constantly dropping out.

The association was first established by Hao Ge and some fans of animated films who wanted to play the female roles. "Many friends said we looked very much like girls, so we organized the association for fun," said Xiao Hua, one of the group's founders.

The association soon drew huge attention among the public for featuring cross-dressing in its act, and a total of 197 people reportedly joined up in its early days, most of whom were from Wuhan-based universities.

However, the number declined sharply to fewer than 30 because most of the members were forced to leave due to "social pressure."

"The association goes against mainstream social values that say men should be men and women should be women, and we have endured a lot of pressure from society, schools, our relatives and friends," Hao said.

All the members use feminine pseudonyms to reduce the chances of harassment. Members have complained that audiences sometimes throw eggs and beer bottles at them when they perform. A local university even threatened to expel one member from the Party if he did not quit.

In the end, only two members stayed, including Hao Ge.

Hao never gave up. "Even though society had bad ideas about us, I knew clearly who I was and decided I should carry on with it.  After all, there should be someone to break the idea that men shouldn't perform as women," Hao said, brushing aside the objections of his parents.

Hao began to take part in Cosplay shows playing female roles, and even managed to win a number of prizes. Compared with his cross-dressing performances, people have shown themselves to be more tolerant of the Cosplay shows.

The situation improved in late 2010 after they were invited to participate in a TV discussion. "We went on the program and held a debate with our opponents, explaining that we're performers and not promoting anything against social values," said Xiao Hua.

"People began to realize we're not psychos, and we've been invited to a lot of TV shows since then," Hao said.

Invitations from performance companies also followed, and their appearance fees increased from 80 yuan ($12.84) to 1,500 yuan for each member.

To satisfy the curiosity of the media and public, the members of the association began to reveal details of their daily lives last year, insisting that they were "real men" when they weren't performing. "None of us are gay and we are normal boys after we take off our makeup," Hao said.

Half of the members have girlfriends, who sometimes help the performers put on their makeup.

Most of them work in the art and fashion industry. Both Hao Ge and Quan Xiaoyao are makeup artists.

Despite their insistence on their masculinity, they still display many gentler traits: They are slim and feminine, with small hands and feet, and white skin. They also wax or shave their arms and legs to maintain a feminine appearance, spending large amounts of time and money on skin care.

Most recently, they went to Xiamen for a signing event, where they sold hundreds of posters, signed portraits and flyers. Thousands of fans flocked to see them, and the guards had to cordon off fans to keep order.

However, despite their obvious popularity, the members complain that they haven't been accepted by some mainstream commercial events.

"People still have prejudices. And we're not welcomed by most of the commercial shows apart from some animation festivals," said member Quan Xiaoyao, who joined the association last year.

Drawing the line

The association categorizes itself as weiniang, a general term that describes cross-dressers.  However, they are eager to distinguish themselves from transvestites, even writing in one recruitment advertisement that "transvestites are not welcome."

"We're normal boys, and we don't want to ruin our reputation by recruiting transvestites," Hao said, adding that they seldom wear women's clothes outside of their performances.

The public came to know the term weiniang after Liu Zhu, a sophomore student from the Sichuan Conservatory of Music, shot to fame when he took part in the wildly popular 2010 Super Boy series on Hunan Satellite TV dressed as a woman.

He said on the show that he had been dressing like a girl since he was in high school, and loved it. 

His meteoric rise to fame caused great controversy, and some criticized him for "leading many teenagers astray."

After that, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) was reported to have issued a warning last year to a local TV station for "over-hyping" the cross-dresser, which was said to have resulted in Liu losing the contest.

But SARFT's objections seem to have done little to push back the phenomenon.  An online "weiniang forum" has been launched on baidu.com, China's leading search engine, with 22,948 registered members as of press time.

The forum features a detailed guide, including the definition of weiniang and how to become one.

Media coverage of the group led to a great deal of controversy among the public, with some experts concerned that this exposure might mislead youngsters and distort their perception of gender.

"Adolescence is a time for people to establish the right perception of gender and it is also a time for them to express uniqueness. When they grow up, they might imitate these gender-ambiguous pop stars or troupes instead of following traditional male roles to express their personality," said Sun Yunxiao, deputy director of the China Youth and Children Research Center.

According to the book Rescue Boys, jointly written by Sun Yunxiao, Li Wendao and Zhao Xia, many boys are displaying effeminate behavior and becoming much more emotionally vulnerable and less competitive than girls.

"The frequent absence of a father figure and excessive protection from the mother is making Chinese boys more feminine," Sun said.

The female-dominated education system is another reason behind the feminization of boys. "Schoolboys are taught to be obedient to their female teachers, which might hold back boys from developing typically male characteristics," Li said.

"If parents and society fail to guide them correctly as they grow up, they will have a false perception of gender," Sun said.

In a poll by ifeng.com, 36 percent of 11,451 participants believed the feminization of Chinese boys has become an urgent problem, while 25 percent of them believed boys were becoming psychologically weaker.

Divided views

Tang Jian, a Chongqing citizen who works at a cultural company, was the first to launch an online campaign against weiniang, calling for the "return of masculinity". Tang established a QQ chat group and had drawn over 30 members as of press time. "Men should be more competitive than women in modern society. Men should live like men," Tang told a local daily.

"We should start by correctly guiding our sons and daughters, and teach them the correct perception of gender," Tang said.

Fans of the association responded by organizing activities to support the Alice Cross-Dressers Association. They also launched a QQ group, drawing a total of 450 people to their cause, updating news and pictures of the group's performances.

In the end, society seems to be somewhat divided over what Hao and his group do, and the possible effects the group's performances can have on impressionable youths.

The feminization of Chinese boys and constant media exposure of weiniang has long been a source of concern for some, who fear that it might lead boys into choosing a transsexual lifestyle.

"Cross-dressing used to be a form of dramatic expression in ancient China when unrelated men and women were forbidden from having intimate contact," said Peng Xiaohui, a sexologist from Central China Normal University.

Now, "weiniang is a lifestyle choice. We should correctly guide young people to have a mainstream perception of gender when they grow up, but for those adults who choose weiniang as a lifestyle, society should tolerate and respect it," Peng told the Global Times.