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Happy Singles Day(11.11), for people who are living the single life

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Happy Singles Day(November 11), for people who are living the single life

Singles Day - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Singles Day, One's Day or Guang Gun Jie (Chinese: 光棍节; pinyin: guāng gùn jié; Wade–Giles: kuang kun chieh; literally "bare sticks holiday") is a Chinese pop culture holiday on November 11 for people who are living the single life.
Origins
University culture
Singles' Day was initially celebrated at various universities in Nanjing during the 1990s, and originated from Nanjing University in 1993. It got the name Singles Day because the date consists of four "ones". These college students have since graduated, and carried the university tradition into society. The Singles Day has been largely popularized in the internet era and is now a special day for all fashionable youths.

The main way to celebrate Singles' Day is to have dinner with your single friends, but it's important that each person pay their own way to show their independence. Some send short messages or e-mails to their single friends to deliver their best wishes. People also hold 'blind date' parties in an attempt to bid goodbye to their single lives. Not every single is happy on this day. They may tease themselves for being still single as a university student. Some prefer to watch movies in a theatre. Some schools of a university would put forward a special program to gather singles together for celebration. In recent years, there has been more social attention to this holiday. For example, Taobaoshangcheng gives a up to 70% discount on this day. There are many activities on the Internet to help singles find a mate.

2011 marked the "Singles Day of the Century" (shiji guanggunjie), this date having six "ones" rather than four, an excuse to take celebrations to a higher notch[1]. Shopping promotions were highlighted throughout China and activities were widespread. Although this date comes to celebrate singlehood, the desire to find a spouse or mate is also expressed by young Chinese on this date, and other love-related issues are discussed by the Chinese media.
Celebration

For breakfast on Singles' Day, singles often eat four Youtiao (deep-fried dough sticks) representing the four "ones" in "11.11" and one Baozi (steamed stuffed bun) representing the middle ***.

Some singles also choose to say goodbye to their single lives on this day: many attend 'blind date' parties and many people choose to marry on this day. In 2011, higher numbers in marital celebrations occurred in Hong Kong and Beijing on November 11 than the average daily amount.[2] In addition to meaning 'single,' the four 'ones' of the date can also mean 'only one' as in 'the only one for me.' Some people will use this date and this meaning to tell their special someone that they are the only 'one' in their heart.

In episode 6 of The Apprentice (UK Series Four), team Alpha decided to make a range of themed greeting cards revolving around National Singles' Day[3], which met mixed success from buyers Clinton Cards, Celebrations and Tesco. Initially, the team planned to have it on February 13th, the day before Valentine's Day. However, Clinton Cards and Tesco questioned their decision as to why celebrate it before Valentine's Day considering it's one of the card's major seasons like Christmas and have the day competed with Valentine's Day. Tesco also pointed out who would send cards to single people.
 
Shift this thread to Member's Club so that we can come and troll. :D
 
China Focus: Online shopping bonanza breaks records - Xinhua | English.news.cn
China Focus: Online shopping bonanza breaks records in singles day
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Employees of "Qi Gege" (literally "The Seventh Princess"), an online women's wear retailer, celebrate over increased transactions in the company's office during a sales promotion for the "November 11 Singles' Day" in Hangzhou, capital of east China's Zhejiang Province, early Nov. 11, 2012. (Xinhua/Huang Zongzhi)

By Xinhua Writers Ji Shaoting and Zhang Yao

HANGZHOU, Nov. 11 (Xinhua) -- More than two billion yuan was spent in the first 70 minutes of a 24-hour shopping bonanza at China's largest business-to-customer online purchase website on Sunday.

More than 10 million people swarmed to Taobao.com, for its 24-hour 50-percent-off carnival because of "Single's Day." November 11 (11/11)represents four single people.

The sale has been initiated by the e-commerce company Alibaba Group with Taobao.com and Tmall.com, based in Hangzhou, capital of eastern Zhejiang Province.

As of 11:18 a.m. Sunday, trade volume reached 7.9 billion yuan (1.265 billion U.S. dollars), exceeding the 5.2 billion yuan in the 24 hours on Nov. 11 last year.

Volume reached 10 billion yuan as of 1:38 p.m., which was the target for the 24 hours. It was realized 10 hours in advance, according to the company's statistics.

The sales carnival is also testing the banking system and express delivery systems.

Wu Liying, a bank employee in Hangzhou worked overnight to avoid any collapse of the banking system.

"It's been too hustle and bustle," Wu told Xinhua. "The scale has exceeded the daily volume, which has brought great challenges to our system."

Payment channels at some banks appeared to falter, just as they did last year on the same day.

Although the Alipay.com, payment platform of Alibaba Group connecting the website to banks, has had a project team in place since August, the online system of China Construction Bank broke down for a while due.

Systems of the Bank of China and Industrial Bank were alerted as being too busy.

According to the China Construction Bank, transaction flow exceeded six times than usual during night hours. The system failed from 1:15 a.m. to 2:00 a.m. in branches in Sichuan Province and Beijing.

The event has also triggered a busy day for logistics industries.

"I can only slept two hours at night. Some online shops needed to start deliveries at 3 a.m.," said Wang Yunda, a courier of Shentong Express in Hangzhou.

Last year, 20 million packages were delivered with some customers having to wait three months for their goods.

Other e-commerce companies, including 360buy.com, suning.com and dangdang.com have joined in marketing on the same day to form a real tide sweeping the whole Internet purchase, said Lu Zhenwang, observer of e-commerce.

Consumer habits have been changing in the country and new online space emerged in the world's largest market with the largest population, Lu said.

The number of netizens reached 538 million in June while the popularity rate is only 39.3 percent in China, according to the latest statistics of China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC).

"The rate is 70 percent in western countries, which indicates China's large potential for online purchasing," said Jing Linbo, researcher of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Although exports continued to improve in October it was only described as a "slight improvement" by Chen Deming, minister of commerce.

"China's economy cannot only count on exports, which is still hard to predict, while investment is influenced by policies and macroeconomic environment. Thus, domestic demand carries more expectation to stimulate China's economy," Jing said.

"Online purchases shows the potential of China," he said.

The report of 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) raised a new goal to double people's income by 2020 from 2010. This requires the Party to not only stimulate domestic demand but also balance supply and demand, said Huang Hao, associate professor of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

"The online purchase platform shows great consuming capacity, which offers a channel to balance supply and demand as some commodities were

transferred from traditional sellers," Huang said.

Some companies transferred their storage from downtown department stores to e-commerce depots right before Single's Day, which created a new way to decrease the storage of traditional retailers, he said.

"The large social collaboration triggered by e-commerce marketing pushes the limits of each one in the chain. More peaks will come to be both tests and chances," said Zhang Yong, president of Tmall.com.

Ma Yun, board chairman of Alibaba Group, which runs Taobao.com, said that e-commerce is complementary to advanced traditional retailer in the U.S..

"However, China's infrastructures and traditional retail industry is not perfect enough, which gives e-commerce a chance to become mainstream to stimulate domestic demand, while logistics and other supporting facilities can improve and match up," Ma told Xinhua.

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A cartoon image of business-to-consumer (B2C) online retail website Tmall.com is placed at its headquaters in Hangzhou, capital of east China's Zhejiang Province, Nov. 11, 2012. As the Chinese grassroots' self-proclaimed Singles' Day, which falls on November 11, gains popularity, the country's e-commerce websites have grasped the chance to make money. The burgeoning online retail website Tmall.com launched a 24-hour sales promotion beginning Nov. 11. By the end of 14:00 (0600 GMT) on Sunday, the transaction volume of Tmall.com and its consumer-to-consumer (C2C) counterpart Taobao.com has surpassed 10 billion RMB (about 1.6 billion U.S dollars), higher than the single day on-line sales volume record of the United States in 2011. (Xinhua/Huang Zongzhi)

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People select electrical equipment at an electric home appliance store in Yinchuan, capital of northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, Nov. 11, 2012. As the Chinese grassroots' self-proclaimed Singles' Day, which falls on November 11, gains popularity, the country's merchants have grasped the chance to make money. (Xinhua/Peng Zhaozhi)
 
Just broke up with my boyfriend a few days ago. Ahh, what a refreshing feeling :partay:
 
I guess nobody wants freedom these days as they're happy to be tie up......


'Singles Day' sparks mass weddings in Taiwan


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“Singles Day” was in full swing yesterday as multiple mass weddings took place across Taiwan.

One hundred and eleven newlyweds from the Ministry of Transportation and Communications and Chunghwa Telecom swore undying love in a mass ceremony in Taipei, with Minister of Transportation and Communications Mao Chi-kuo (毛治國) in attendance.

Meanwhile 101 newlyweds in New Taipei walked the aisle in a separate service, with New Taipei City Mayor Eric Chu (朱立倫) there in person.

A total of 188 couples were wed in a ceremony in Kaohsiung presided over by Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊).

Singles Day, which originated in Nanjing University in 1993, got its name because the date consists of four “ones,” and one means single or loneliness in Chinese. Single friends often celebrate the day by hanging out together.

A technology company in mainland China handed out a “love bonus” prize valued at 1000 yuan for previously single employees who have proven that they have started a relationship since the prize was offered. Meanwhile employees who recently ended a relationship can request for two paid days off in the month.

According to the company's planning supervisor, most employees in the office are male and about 80 percent of them are single. Many of them were obviously depressed about Singles Day, the supervisor said.

The purpose of this bonus was to cheer single employees up and many of them seem to be in a better mood at work, the supervisor added.

'Singles Day' sparks mass weddings in Taiwan - The China Post
 

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