As I blogged before, Chinese is really creative to invent some new special occasions (click here for my previous blog). And today 11th November is Guang Gun Jie (Singles Day or One’s Day) in China, not acknowledged by the government but well received by the public. Guang Gun is the nick name in Chinese for a single.
Why is today? Simple, 11.11. Can you find another day with more 1?
To be precise, today (11.11) is Big Singles Day. 1.11 (11th Jan) and 11.1(1st of Nov) are Medium Singles Day (because only got three 1s). 1.1 (1st Jan) is Small Singles Day.
If this is not enough, we also have the mascot for Singles Day, 4 You Tiao (Deep fried bread sticks) and an egg or a round shaped dumpling, which make the sign of ‘11.11′ (4 You Tiao are the four 1s and the egg or dumpling is the dot).
The mascot of Singles Day
I believe the invention of Singles Day reflects the fact that more and more young singles in the big cities find it’s hard to find the mates because of various reasons such as too little free time, few networking opportunities etc. And they try to solve this problem proactively by give themselves a special day to meet new friends.
So if you go out tonight to the pubs or restaurants in Shanghai. there must be loads of special celebrations there.
Let’s celebrate the Singles Day!
Tags: Culture Matters
Got Questions? Like our Site? Want to Share with Friends?
• Ask Hoo questions and mail to:cookhoo@gmail.com Or Subscribe to our RSS feed: 
|
• Click to bookmark our site or tell a friend:
|