november 11, a day represented by four digits of 1, has been dubbed "singles day"
by young single chinese. china is the only country in the world that has set aside a specialday for singles to celebrate their lives. to find out more about this celebration, read on.
11月11日，因其由四個阿拉伯數字“1”構成，於是便被中國的年輕單身族稱為“光棍節”。中國是世界上唯一一個專門為光棍們設立節日的國家。接下來讓我們更深入地來了解一下這個節日吧。
among chinese in the 22 to 49 age bracket, males outnumber females by 16.97 million, which means tens of millions of single chinese in this age group.
在22歲至49歲這個年齡段中，中國男性的人數比女性多出了1697萬人，這就意味著這個年齡段里會有上千萬的光棍出現。
when explaining the reasons for being single 40 percent interviewees believe growing self-consciousness among the young has raised the bar for selecting the other half. 20 percent netizens believe it is because social environment has become more tolerant and being single is facing less pressure of public opinion.
當問起光棍增多的原因，40％的受訪者表示年輕人對自身感受的重視增加了尋找另一半的難度。而20％的網民則認為寬鬆的社會環境和公眾壓力的減少導致了光棍的增多。
origin of singles day 節日起源
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 and played mahjong.
故事從四個過著單調生活的單身漢說起。他們沒有人結婚，連女朋友都沒有，日子過得無精打采，終日用麻將打發日子。
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. even more of a coincidence, it was nov 11, or 11/11. in order to commemorate the day, they nicknamed it singles day.
有一天他們打麻將從早上11點打到了晚上11點。牌局中，不管誰贏，都贏在了“四條”上。更加巧合的是，這一天正好是11月11號。為了紀念這一天，他們給它命名為“光棍節”。
11月11日既是光棍節也是結婚日
university culture 大學文化
singles day was first celebrated at various universities in nanjing, capital city of jiangsu province during the 1990s. these college students have since graduated, and carried their university tradition into society. singles day is now a special day for all fashionable youths.
光棍節最先在90年代的江蘇南京各大高校興起。大學生們畢業了，把這個傳統帶到了社會上，光棍節就成了時尚青年們的一個特殊節日。
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. people also hold "blind date" parties in an attempt to bid goodbye to their single lives.