In China, if a woman is not married after age of 27, she is called a Sheng Nu, a leftover woman. According to The New York Times, the term was made popular by the All-China Women’s Federation in 2007.

It’s not an old-fashioned, largely irrelevant term like its Western sibling, spinster. It is entrenched in Chinese culture. The enormous pressure unmarried women face from both their parents and Chinese society is real.

Forsman & Bodenfors’ creative, Sophia Lindholm, who was also behind Volvo Epic Split, has help global skin care brand, SK-11, to tackle what is a taboo subject in China.

At the same time, women all over the world are having to deal with others wanting to control how they live, so it truly is a global problem.

It’s a taboo topic and this is the first time the issue of Sheng Nus has been raised publicly like this. Marriage Market Takeover is F&B’s first campaign for SK-11.

In F&B’s four minute film, single Chinese women like 33 year-old Li Yu Xuan voice their anguish and ask to be understood.

Last year, SK-ll, launched #changedestiny, an ongoing global campaign to inspire and empower women to shape their own destiny. As a part of this campaign SK-II has been sharing stories of women who overcame challenges and barriers that were preventing them from achieving their dreams and goals.

Many modern Chinese women want to marry for love, but that’s a lottery in every culture. And in many Chinese cities so-called marriage markets are a common sight. Here, parents go to post, compare and match personal ads, listing the height, weight, salary, values and personality of their sons and daughters. In some cases, women are unaware that their parents have listed them at a marriage market. The markets are a symbol of the different views on marriage between two generations which lead to the pressure put on women by their families.

In the campaign film, many women describe how they are torn between trying to meet their parents’ expectations to build a family, while at the same time wanting to choose their own path in life.

With Forsman & Bodenfors at the helm, SK-11 took over the marriage market in Shanghai’s People’s Park. A huge installation was made with SK-II’s own ”marriage ads” that were in fact not ads but messages from hundreds of independent women, stating that they want to be in control of their own destiny. By doing so, a platform was created from where the women could voice their thoughts.

On this platform, the women are shown to be happy, independent and confident – the opposite of the desperate image of Sheng Nus often being portrayed. The women tell the world how they see themselves and ask for better understanding.

“Being independent is a great lifestyle and it’s the life I want,” Wang Xiao Qi states in the campaign film.