Enjoying a brush with social media fame

However, that meant expensive fees and intensive, closed-off training, Zhang recalls that she would sometimes draw until two or three o'clock in the morning.

"I often fell asleep in class and the teacher would tap my head," she recounts, adding that she believes that success comes with persistent practice.

She is not sure if she is gifted at painting, but Zhang has the courage of her convictions and her passion for the art has motivated her to persist with it until now.

In 2013, after embarking on a major in apparel design at Wuyi University in Jiangmen city, Guangdong province, to cover her living expenses, Zhang took part-time jobs, including work as a model, receptionist and handing out leaflets.

One such assignment offered her the opportunity to paint decorative murals on the walls of a company's office. Despite having little technical knowledge about painting murals, Zhang and three of her classmates managed to finish the work. During the process, she felt that murals with a relief effect could prove popular.

Painting murals is similar with clothing design, and the relief effect, she suggests, is similar to draping fabric.

After working at a paint company for several years, she resigned and began to paint murals on her own. Ever since, Zhang has traveled across the country, painting over 500 murals along the way.

In 2018, Zhang began to share her painting process on TikTok, and beyond her expectation, her videos attracted an increasing number of viewers, with some even commissioning her to produce custom pieces.

"Painting murals and taking videos are the things I'm interested in. While the painting provides the material for my videos, my videos bring me opportunities to travel to various places and meet many skilled mural painters," she notes.

"The classic style of mural adheres to traditional Chinese aesthetic standards, while younger clients prefer a more modern and simple style," she says.

Most of her murals are designs made to the requirements of her clients, Zhang says, adding that getting the chance to create more original murals is her goal.

Since the internet made her an overnight sensation, she received an invitation to create an original mural for a town in Mianzhu city, Sichuan province.

At the beginning of 2021, Zhang and her friends spent five days creating the painting in Qingping, a town which was hit hard by the devastating earthquake in 2008.

On an outdoor wall of more than 40 square meters, they painted a reclining girl with a smile on her face, falling asleep while cradling a cute panda that is holding some bamboo.

She smiles because she dreams about a fairy-tale world, and the bamboo represents the perseverance of people in Mianzhu, who never gave up hope and turned their once ruined home into a prosperous city, Zhang explains.

"It was an impressive experience, we gathered in the town, overcame the bad weather conditions and created a fairy tale," she says, adding that the mural expresses her respect and love for the people of Mianzhu.

The experience reinforced her desire to create more original murals, and, according to Zhang, her fans have also given her the courage and strength to do more.

While providing a training class to promote the art to those interested in mural painting, she says she will also paint murals in her own style, adapting them to meet changing aesthetics of the public and different generations.

Speaking of her busy work schedule, Zhang concludes that, instead of staying in her well-paid comfort zone, she is choosing to move forward and push herself to new heights.