TAIPEI (Taiwan News) -- After news broke on Monday (July 22) that New Taipei Municipal Banqiao Senior High School (板橋高中) had decided to allow its male students to wear skirts to class next school year, a Twitter user posted photos of the boys wearing skirts on Tuesday (July 23).

On Monday, the high school, which is situated in New Taipei City's Banqiao District, announced that following a week-long experiment in May, it would begin to allow male students to wear skirts to class in the coming school year. On Tuesday, Twitter user @1491Monster posted two photos of boys at the school already wearing skirts, quickly becoming the top trending item on the social media platform for the keyword "Taiwan" that day.

In the post, the Twitter user, who will soon be a second year high school student in Taipei, wrote "Boys wearing skirts too... very cute!" School officials said they were not encouraging boys to wear skirts but only respecting the free will of their students, the Central News Agency reported Monday (July 22).

A Ministry of Education spokesman welcomed the decision, saying it probably was a first for Taiwan to have adopted such a measure, breaking gender stereotypes following a democratic consultation process. Despite the loosening of the dress code, students at the New Taipei City school will still have to comply to uniform rules stipulating that the clothes they wear, skirts or not, should be dark blue or black, and that the skirts not be higher than 10 centimeters above the knee.

Source: Taiwan News