CROSS-STITCH, by Jazmina Barrera ... the good-looking girls who were no longer little kids, who played soccer or volleyball in the afternoons, had boyfriends, wore low-cut tops and could dance.” ...

In a small city in China's north-eastern Liaoning province, Ms Xu Tingting has been working on a cross-stitch for days - her daughter's fourth grade homework assignment from her primary school.