Most people, at some point, have had to field an enquiry from a relative about their relationship status. It's a question that can seem innocent, interfering or infuriating - depending on who's asking. But if the answer is "no one, thanks", that's fine. Right?

In the UK, perhaps, but in modern China, many women in their 20s and 30s still face suffocating pressure to marry. Those who remain single into their late 20s are called "sheng nu": literally, "leftover women".

Owing to the country's one-child policy, introduced in 1979, men in China outnumber women by some 33 million. (In traditional Chinese culture, sons were valued more than daughters - meaning that female babies were often aborted or abandoned.) With so many men around, women who are unwilling or unable to find a husband are often regarded with suspicion, and pushed by their families into "settling down". In 2007, the Chinese Ministry of Education attributed women's failure to marry to their "overly high expectations for marriage partners".

But now a powerful short film, produced by cosmetics brand SK-II, has set out to challenge Chinese perceptions of single women. In the video, titled "Marriage Market Takeover", young Chinese women articulate the familial and cultural pressures they face to find a husband.

“She's leftover because she’s average looking”: powerful film shows what it’s like to be a single woman in China