Guo Jianguo held onto the arms of an 8-year-old and flung the boy over his shoulder. This caused a little gasp from the audience, but Guo smiled in a reassuring way as he swung the boy around, the boy giggling loudly. After a few swings, he put the boy down. "Walk back by yourself," he said, in this scene from an interview with Beijing Television two years ago. The boy did just that, without wobbling.

"From the moment we were born, even when we were babies, we had to deal with gravity," Guo said. "If you can't have a good relationship with it, you'll get tired."

A tall, slim, sports teacher at Tianjin Finance University for more than 20 years, Guo doesn't necessarily strike people as the type who takes on the role of infant nurse.

However, he has been playing this role for almost 20 years and created a new system to help kids develop body and mind. Despite obstacles along the way in a field society might say is unfit for a man's work, Guo, a father of one daughter with son of her own, said he's just following his own interests.

The root of success

Guo hasn't always been passionate about infant education. He started teaching sports in 1982 to college students. After a few years, he stumbled on an interesting fact: the students who received good grades in college didn't necessarily make it after they graduated; those that were mischievous in school turned out to be more successful.

"I started wondering, 'Why is it that college students are turning out in these different ways?'" he said. "I started looking into early education for answers."

Guo started talking to his students about early education and their childhoods to see what kind of children they were. He realized that human brain development started early, even during the first few years of life. And what better way is there to train, he thought, than through sports?

In 1996, Guo saw an interview on TV of early education specialist Chen Yue, who expressed similar thoughts to what Guo had been exploring. Guo hopped on a train to Beijing one day after class in search of him.

Back then, it took about 3 hours to travel between the two cities by train; however, it still took him two days to track down Chen. Guo didn't have any phone number, only an address of the kindergarten Chen was trying to set up at the time.

"Once we connected, we talked for a long time," he said. "We even found out our birthdays were only a day apart."

Guo started to commute between Tianjin and Beijing regularly. During the weekdays Guo would teach at Tianjin University, but over the weekends he came to Beijing and taught sports such as rollerblading and swimming to kids at the kindergarten.

Setting up 'fetus university'

There's no scientific proof of Guo's research, only stories of development considered successful by societal standards.

"The children that have been through the training have great personalities. Many developed strong skills and went on TV or on the Spring Festival shows," he said.

Some of the kids he taught were able to rollerblade even before they reached the age of 1.

In 1999, Guo set up the first "fetus university" in China, cooperating with a hospital in Tianjin for obstetrics and gynecology to set up a series of lectures for pregnant women.

"I would give lectures and help them do exercises for anyone willing to attend. There were theory classes as well as gymnastics exercises for pregnant women," he said.

The university had 14 sessions, lasting about four years and instructing more than 5,000 women. In order to further test his theory, Guo kept close contact with some of the women after they graduated.

"Every month we would do a full health and IQ check on the children and provide educational advice based on their situation," he said. "Some of the children are about 13 years old now, and they are in much better condition than their peers."

Besides targeting pregnant women, the more important part of Guo's theory focuses on training the children directly. He invented different exercise techniques parents can practice on their babies that incorporate gymnast-style movements, such as flipping the children over or lifting babies in the air, as well as small and gentle tosses.

In the video footage of his demonstrations, whenever Guo performed such high-level movements, gasps would follow. Some of these movements raised eyebrows, but Guo claims they work. Still, he never wants to force anyone to accept his theory.

"[My] concept cannot be accepted by all parents," he said. "It's one type of child-raising. If you believe it, you'll succeed."

Obstacles along the road 

Guo's techniques haven't been accepted by everybody.

"There are few in the world who are crazy like us," he said. "This is not a name others called me by, it's my own comment. If others look at us like we are weird, then we must be crazy."

Both his friends and family members have encouraged Guo to find a new line of work, saying nursing and early education aren't "a man's career."

"Right now English training will get you fast money," he said. "Why do baby stuff? … The traditional concept always stated this is a women's thing, society doesn't accept a man doing this."

But he said it makes him happy to have a career in this field. Besides, men can bring a different perspective into baby nursing and early education, he said. There are things a woman can't provide a baby, he said.

Right now, Guo is developing a website in the hopes of making his ideas even more widespread, even though many might not accept his approach. He said it's all up to fate.

"I'm providing a possibility to the parents," he said.