What could have otherwise been a routine, perhaps boring visit of a state official, no less than by incoming Premier Li Keqiang, in China's poor areas became a source of amused and giddy laughs when a bare bottomed Chinese boy stole the limelight during the interview video that was flashed all over the country.

No amount of crisis management planning could have predicted that the moment between Mr Li and Gao Junping, an impoverished 56-year-old farmer, would be stolen by one unscripted moment when the boy would pop out of a wardrobe behind them wearing no underwear on. Mr Gao is the father of the boy. The interview between the two men happened at the bedroom at Mr Gao's house.

Mr Gao's decision to hide his son inside the wardrobe closet did not stem from any child abuse matter. Because they got word that a group state officials, led no less than by Mr Li, and journalists were coming to their house, the farmer and his wife immediately organised their humble house, and perhaps even told their boy to hide himself somewhere else.

But perhaps the boy felt uncomfortable inside the wardrobe closet that he eventually decided to come out, unaware of the ongoings and that even a TV camera had already aimed his bare bottom.

Mr Li was reported to have been amused with the wardrobe malfunction.

He nonetheless just continued with the staged talk with the farmer father.

"Your living conditions are terrible,"Mr Li reportedly told one of the migrant laborers on his visit. "Our hearts are troubled for you."

Chinese netizens hailed the honesty of the televised interview.

"Old Li inspected the people's real lives," Xiehe Yinjia, a Weibo-user, said.

"This bare bottom shows honesty," Dai Xiaojing, another microblogger, said.

Others said what they saw was a refreshing and "rare to see this kind of image on TV."

"The kid was having fun as if there was nothing special going on in front of him, it was amusing."

"It's so nice when things are spontaneous and true!"