Rare account

The Xi Jinping Era presents his vision in Chinese and English, and offers glimpses into the president's personal life. Yang Yang reads up.

As a young boy, Xi Jinping once refused to wear an old pair of shoes with floral prints for fear of being teased by fellow students at school. They had belonged to one of his sisters.

But their late father, Xi Zhongxun, who served as a vice-premier of the country, offered a solution: a coat of dye would make the shoes more suitable for his son.