Turning the tide

She admits that she is a woman who has unconsciously conformed to such gender stereotypes, but she is now aware of that and tries to think outside the box.

In the past 30 years or so, Zhang says, she has never sat on a couch that makes her comfortable, because they are always too deep for her body frame. "I had always blamed myself for being uncomfortable, but now I know it is not my fault, it is the couch," Zhang explains.

In her opinion, it is not only the design of the couch that needs to be changed, but also the world around it. Female voices need to be amplified to let more women know they have a choice, and to speak out about it.

Zhang is glad to see that, increasingly, young women are taking things a step further than her, and the psychologist tells every person she consults, no matter whether they're female or male, that it is their right to be happy.

As Simone de Beauvoir, the French existentialist writer, said, one is not born a woman, but becomes one. For Zhang, it took her decades to even begin understanding that sentence, and when the self-awareness begins, nothing can hold it back.