Guang gun jie
Have you heard of the Singles Day? It’s on 11th November every year.
Do you know why the Singles Day is on that day?
“Guang gun”
*Old meaning:“guang gun” means “bachelor” in Chinese. It refers to men who are still single after the age that other people are get married .Because they have no skills ,no money ,no charming appearance….. there are no girls who want to marry them! In the past the name ‘Guang Gun’ was used to make fun of these bachelors…
But now, there is no stigma attached to the name and just means someone who is not in a relationship.
Origin of “Singles Day”
There are different kinds of origin theories of Singles Day.
* An old story goes that once there were four single men, leading very boring lives. None of them were married, or had lovers, or did anything exciting. They just sat around all day playing Mahjong.
One day they played Mahjong from 11 in the morning until 11 at night. During the game, no matter who won, the winning card was always the ‘four columns’ card (the card shows four independent, parallel columns in two lines). Even more of a coincidence, it was Nov 11, or 11/11. In order to commemorate the day, they nicknamed it Singles Day.
* Another story goes that the Singles Day started in the 1990s in Nanjing(the capital city of Jiangsu Province , China).College students found that on 11th November, the date contained all the number 1’s and they thought that day should be celebrated for singles because 1 is a single number in China.
*11th November ,2011 was called “Shen Gun Jie” which means the supreme Singles Day, because it was 11.11.11
How to celebrate
*Send messages to friends: such as – ‘Bachelor’s Day is coming’, ‘birds are in love’, and my favourites… ‘ants are cohabiting’, ‘the fly is pregnant’, ‘the butterfly has divorced’ and ‘even the ugly frog has a baby, why are you still single?’
*Behavior: eat 4 youtiaos (deep-fried dough sticks)as breakfast to represent the four “one”s in “11.11”,take bus No.11,basically choose everything which has an 11 in it!
*Dinner: The main way to celebrate Singles Day is to have dinner with friends to celebrate. Even if you are single or not it’s important that each person pays their own way to show their independence.
*Date & Marriage: Many singles also choose to say goodbye to their single lives on this day. Many attend ”blind date” parties and many people even choose to marry on this day. 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.
Single’s Day is very popular in China and some other countries now ,How do you plan to enjoy your Singles Day this year? Would you like to join a Singles Day party here in China?
You want to meet new people or celebrate Single’s Day in China? Apply now for an internshipin China and enjoy unique moments!