It’s not as vast as the terracotta army found buried with China’s first emperor, but a French artist has created one of her own.

It’s not as vast as the terracotta army found buried with China’s first emperor, but a French artist has created one of her own.

While the figures were inspired in part by the mass of soldiers found decades ago in the tomb of Qin Shi Huang, they bear one very significant difference.

The warriors made by Prune Nourry are female.

Nourry, who was born in Paris and lives in New York, crafted the hundred plus statues to serve as a statement about the inequality of the sexes in China.

She said, "In China, there is a huge imbalance between boys and girls. I wanted to highlight the issue of gender preference.”

That preference, combined with the country’s one-child law, has led to the early termination of numerous pregnancies and the abandonment of many baby girls.

The features and clothing represented on the figures are based on those of 8 girls living at a Chinese orphanage.

Over 100 members of Nourry’s army are currently on display at New York’s China Institute in an exhibition named ‘Terracotta Daughters’.

Eventually they will be buried in China and dug back up in 2030, the year that the uneven gender ratio there is predicted to negatively and significantly impact males’ ability to find a mate.