But Zhang faces immense pressure from her family, who insist that she is “getting old” that a woman “of her age” should be married with children.

She does her best to deal with the pressure to conform to convention but it can be a lonely path to follow.

Now, however, she is drawing inspiration from a reality show that has become a hit on Chinese television.

Instead of giving young ingenues a shot at fame, Sisters Who Make Waves, produced by Hunan Television, has invited established actresses and performers over 30, and some in their 50s, to compete for a spot in a five-member band.

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The show has been a hit, especially among women, since it started airing in June. The first episode was played more than 300 million times on Mango TV, the channel’s official cellphone app.

For women like Zhang, the show’s attraction is the way it portrays more experienced women using their confidence and expertise – rather than youth – to get what they need.

Some of the competitors on Sisters have already been household names. Actress Ning Jing, 48, has a long list of TV and film credits to her name and 50-year-old Hong Kong actress Adia Chan Chung-ling, is well known for her leading role in the Hong Kong drama Song Bird.

Other contestants have experience in pop, such as Wang Feifei, a member of South Korean girl group Miss A for seven years until 2017. And some are younger actresses with more than a decade in the business but limited opportunities.

In other performance-based reality shows, it is common for contestants to break down and cry under the pressure-cooker atmosphere but in the Hunan TV programme, the women exude confidence on stage and in discussions with production staff.

“Seeing you on stage, I am no longer anxious about my age,” one viewer commented on Weibo, China’s Twitter-like microblogging service.

Hangzhou resident Hu Jing is obsessed with the show. Every day, she lobbies her friends to vote for their favourite “sister” online and even buys the milk of the programme’s sponsor to get extra ballots.

Hu was in business for about 10 years and worked for non-profit groups in her spare time, helping disabled women, LGBTQ groups and people with rare diseases.

Three years ago, she decided to devote herself full-time to her charity work, becoming the executive director of the Huatian Social Services Centre in the eastern city of Hangzhou.

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Despite her contributions to the community, Hu said she constantly battled societal pressure that “a woman should not stay single”.

“Raising a child takes at least one-third of a woman’s money, time and energy. If I instead spend all that on charity, my life is more meaningful,” she said.

She found parallels between herself and celebrities on the show. Regina Wan, her favourite contestant, started out as a singer but turned to acting when her albums failed to sell.

Wan had treated every role seriously, Hu said, and tried her best. She even lived with the cast on set when she was five months pregnant.

“Her persistence, patience, and hard work had inspired me. I thought about myself doing social work. I also have to persevere and try, even if nobody notices me,” she said. “I hope to learn to be patient like her, and hope the rest will fall in place.”

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Other viewers resonated with the setbacks of some of the stars, who battled personal and professional difficulties. Many of the women in the show spoke of being offered fewer roles, especially compared with men in their age.

“The [women stars] present a real, comfortable image on screen, but there must be unimaginable pain behind that. Even if they cry on the show, they are only showing the tip of an iceberg,” said Marilyn Zhang, a civil servant who lives in western China.

“I think at this age, in this phase in life, it’s laudable that they can still choose their own paths and go out of their comfort zones.”

Marilyn Zhang said she could relate in some ways to the struggle of the women, having become depressed in the past few years due to her mother’s death and the societal pressure she experienced because she was not married.

A feminist blogger who goes by the pen name Shaoxi said the overwhelming popularity of the show reflected the desperate need for women in China to see themselves portrayed in a different light.

“Women need to see themselves presented other than as a fair-skinned ‘beautiful younger sister’ figure, or an ageing wife or mother,” she said.

On TV, women are often portrayed in romantic dramas in cute, dependent, sentimental roles, or as a mother-in-law who picks fights and is consumed with domestic work.

“These ‘sisters’ on the idol show presented the public with a different possibility,” Shaoxi said. “They are no longer young, some have families, most don’t. But their images aren’t vague, aren’t those of a wife or a mother, but sparkling versions of themselves.

“Age has not put them in an awkward spot, instead, it has made them more confident, more in control of their lives.”

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But some critics say the show falls short of its ideals.

Wu Changchang, an associate professor of journalism at East China Normal University, wrote on Shanghai-based news portal Sixth Tone that the show was “hollow feminism”.

Wu argued at its core the programme was a reality show, “a competition between those who have something to lose and those who don’t”, grounded in resources and connections. Furthermore, the show still emphasised “attractive appearances, svelte figures, dewy skin, unrealistic pep, and extreme self-discipline”.

But Shaoxi said judging an entertainment show on “what degree of feminism” it contained was missing the point. While the producers were in pursuit of profit, the programme’s popularity said something about the female audience.

“It means that compared with the past, more are favouring strong, independent women,” she said. “You see a ‘sister’ in her 50s being herself, living her life, and being divorced and with children and she is fine. That’s a powerful role model.”

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And it’s one that Zhang Xiqing, the designer, could use, with few women in senior management positions at her company.

When she sees the show, she is drawn to the personalities who have suffered setbacks in their career, yet are ambitious, hard working and patient.

“I hope I can be more like them,” she said.