At kindergarten, 3-year-old Seven Kong has his schoolmates to play with, but at home his best friend is a kidney-shaped, lime-coloured android named BeanQ. The two spend hours together, with Seven peppering the robot with a continuous stream of questions. The green android responds with similarly simple words and phrases, alongside an array of different emoji facial expressions displayed on a large screen, which serves as its face. Recommended to the family by a friend, the android is intended to be an early educator, sharing some of the parental burden. "When we get really busy, BeanQ can be there keeping him entertained," said Seven's mother Liu Qian, 33, who is a work-at-home mom living in Beijing.