A home video showing a four-year-old Chinese boy being forced by his parents to run crying almost naked through the snow in bitterly cold New York has sparked an uproar online in China.

He Liesheng said he was only trying to train his son to be strong and manly.

But the footage has ignited debate about the tough parenting style for which China became known after Amy Chua’s book Tiger Mother.

In the video, the little boy runs towards his father, who is filming him, in thick snow with only his shoes and underpants on. The lad is crying and pleading with his dad to take him in his arms.

On several occasions, both parents tell their son to lie down in the snow, which he does eventually when his mother presses him.

“He agreed to go out to run in the snow naked or else it wouldn’t be possible for me to take his clothes off,” said Mr He, who runs a bed linen company in the eastern city of Nanjing. “But he wasn’t very happy when he felt the cold.”

The footage, who has been put online by has been viewed by tens of thousands of people.

Mr He, who also claims to teach his son Kung Fu, dancing, cycling and mountain climbing, said he was trying to help his child develop a masculine temperament.

“He rarely has a cold or fever.”

Ms Xin said that the boy was born prematurely with several health problems including water in the brain that prompted doctors to say he may have cerebral palsy, but that now he has no problems.