Are you a single dog?

Everyone knows that today is Veterans day; however, I would like to talk about a new holiday, which is the singles’ day. It is originated from China. November 11th, when written with numbers, it is 11/11, and Chinese people believe that one means being alone. Also, 1 looks like a bare stick, and singles in China are called bare sticks. There are four 1s on the same day, so it is definitely the loneliest day of the year.

The holiday was invented by a few college students from Nanjing University, and it was originally created for single people to celebrate being single or going out to find their significant ones. However, the culture of being single has been huge in recent years. Single people always call themselves “single dogs.” The term “single dog” has been used widely on Chinese social media platforms. For example, the famous Chinese chatting app WeChat has a feature incorporating the idea of “single dogs.” When people type Single dog （单身狗 Dan Shen Gou）in Chinese on WeChat, a bunch of dog emojis will fall from the top of the screen. (see image attached)

Now, people are trying to find someone to spend the night with on singles’ day because they don’t want be called “single dogs.” There are also a lot articles giving tips for single people to avoid couples; for example, going to the movie theatre and trying not to leave two seats next to each other.

Since single people can be really sad on November 11th, one online shopping company found a way to make them happy several years ago, and the company is the most famous Chinese e-commerce giant--Alibaba. The revenue on November 11th is huge, and has been increased dramatically since 2009. Singles’ day just ended in China. According to BBC News, by the close of trade, the site had seen sales worth 91.2bn yuan ($14.3bn; £9.4bn), a 60% increase from last year. In comparison, sales on Cyber Monday, only hit $1.35bn, according to data analytics firm ComScore.

The huge shopping event was started by Alibaba, but now it is nationwide. Not only online shopping sites but also physical stores consider November 11th one of the most important promotion days in a year. This shopping culture was only limited in China in the last few years, but this year, I have seen a lot of European and American websites following the trends. For example, mytheresa, a German online shopping site has a singles’ day sale and the promotion code are “Single11” and “Happy11.”

November 11th is almost over. How would you celebrate this holiday? Would you go out with your significant others to make single people jealous? Will you hang out with your friend to celebrate being single? Perhaps, the best way to spend the day is sitting in front of your computer and shopping all day.

--Xueer

#SocialMedia #Culture