Chinese Singles' Day or Guanggun Jie (Chinese: 光棍节; pinyin: Guānggùn Jié; Wade–Giles: Kuang-kun chieh; literally: "bare sticks holiday") is an entertaining festival widespread among young Chinese people,[1] to celebrate the fact that they are proud of being single.
The date, November 11th (11/11), is chosen because the number "1" resembles an individual that is alone. This festival has become the largest online shopping day in the world,
with sales in Alibaba's sites Tmalland Taobao at US$5.8 billion in 2013, US$9.3 billion in 2014, US$14.3 billion in 2015 and over US$17.8 billion in 2016.
Chinese Singles' Day or Bachelors' Day, which originated from Nanjing University in 1993, was initially celebrated at various universities in Nanjing during the 1990s.[6] It got the name "Singles' Day" because the date consists of four "one"s. Upon graduating, these college students carried the university tradition into society. Singles' Day has been largely popularized in the internet era and is now observed by youth in several regions outside China as well.
Singles' Day serves as an occasion for single people to party with single friends. The holiday was initially only celebrated by young men, hence the name, "Bachelors' Day", but is now widely celebrated by both sexes.[7] 'Blind date' parties are also popular during this day in an attempt to bid goodbye to their single lives. Some schools of a university put forward a special program to gather singles together for celebration. Singles may take on a bemoaning or self-deprecating attitude for remaining single as a university student, but this has helped curb that negativity.[citation needed]
2011 marked the "Singles Day of the Century" (Shiji Guanggun Jie), this date having six "ones" rather than four—an excuse to take celebrations to a higher level.[8] Shopping promotions were highlighted throughout China and activities were widespread. Although this date is meant to celebrate singlehood, the desire to find a spouse or mate is often expressed by young Chinese on this date, while other love-related issues are discussed by the Chinese media.
Guess #1: Nanjing University's dorm culture. This is the most acceptable guessing for the origin of Single's Day. In 1993 at a dorm called "Mingcaowuzhu (All single men)" at Nanjing University, the four students talked about how to find a girlfriend every night before sleeping for a long time. During their little talks, they came up with the idea of organizing some activities on the upcoming November 11. Since then, those activities organized on November 11 were widely spread to many universities in Nanjing even in many other cities. With these students graduating from universities, this university culture was brought to the whole society, and because of the large amount of single people and social media's strong power, this day has become more and more popular in the Chinese society.
Guess #2: A love story. A young man whose name was Mu Guang Kun, was born on November 11, 1970. Because of his special name in Chinese, he had been called "Guang Gun" since primary school. During his second year at Nanjing University, he began a romantic relationship with a girl. However, the girl was diagnosed with cancer and died later. The young man went to the top floor, fluting with some candles on the night of the girl's death. He seemed to become another person after that night. On his birthday during his senior year, his roommates also went to the top floor with him again to keep him company. Afterwards, this sad story became well known in Nanjing University and his birthday was then set up to be "Guang Gun Festival".
Last year, Alibaba set an all-time record for sales made on one day, Singles’ Day.
On November 11, 2016, Alibaba raked in a whopping $18B in sales.
Let’s repeat that: $18 billion dollars in one day.
Though the meaning behind the holiday itself may seem like a joke, it is obvious that people take shopping on this day very seriously.
And what people buy on Singles’ Day may surprise you.
“We might buy clothes, lingerie, TVs, skincare — things we’ve been coveting and don’t totally need — on Black Friday,” says Cox. “The Chinese buy discounted noodles, dry goods, household items, what I might consider very BORING . . . but all my friends were SO into it.”
As Cox puts it “Singles’ Day, similar to Black Friday, invokes a true scarcity mindset in consumers . . in a country as big as China that’s gone through as many rapid developments as quickly as it has, it’s the perfect storm.”
Just when you thought Americans take shopping seriously, it’s clear that U.S. citizens have nothing on the Chinese. “In China, shopping is a sport. Really, it’s entertainment. It’s fun. It’s something you do with your friends several times a week. Singles’ Day is no exception,” explains Cox.
Immediate delivery
Shopping on Singles’ Day means that you reap the benefits of China’s monstrosity of a shipping industry.
According to Cox, shipping in China is 2-3 times as fast as in the United States. Even though China is just as big as the United States, packages in China are packaged and shipped all hours of the night.
On Singles’ Day, “the delivery of items starts AS SOON AS they are ordered,” exclaims Cox. “It’s possible to get something the same day.”
Speaking of immediate delivery . . .
If you’re single, why not take advantage of this day to spoil yourself?
Whether you are in China or not, it only seems fair that November 11 worldwide should be a guilt-free day for singles to treat themselves, and celebrate navigating the complexities of life without help from a significant other.
With the piles of new goods that you’re bound to have post-Singles’ Day, clearing out some space in your home is a must.
You may not want to permanently go “out with the old, in with the new,” but rather put the old items away for a bit.
Thanks to Closetbox, that’s incredibly easy. And like delivery in China, Closetbox is just as efficient (if not even more), and hassle-free for you.
Closetbox’s valet storage services make it so that you don’t need anyone else around to help you move your boxes into storage.
Simply pack your boxes up, give Closetbox a call, and your items will be swept away into a highly-secure storage unit that is monitored 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
When you’re ready to bring some of those old items back into your life, Closetbox is there to take them out of storage, and safely deliver them to your doorstep.
You certainly don’t need a significant other in your life to do that!
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