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，因其由四个阿拉伯数字“1”构成，于是便被中国的年轻单身族称为“光棍节”。中国是世界上唯一一个专门为光棍们设立节日的国家。接下来让我们更深入地来了解一下这个节日吧。
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岁至49岁这个年龄段中，中国男性的人数比女性多出了1697万人，这就意味着这个年龄段里会有上千万的光棍出现。
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.
当问起光棍增多的原因，40％的受访者表示年轻人对自身感受的重视增加了寻找另一半的难度。而20％的网民则认为宽松的社会环境和公众压力的减少导致了光棍的增多。
origin of singles day 节日起源
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.
故事从四个过着单调生活的单身汉说起。他们没有人结婚，连女朋友都没有，日子过得无精打采，终日用麻将打发日子。
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.
有一天他们打麻将从早上11点打到了晚上11点。牌局中，不管谁赢，都赢在了“四条”上。更加巧合的是，这一天正好是11月11号。为了纪念这一天，他们给它命名为“光棍节”。
11月11日既是光棍节也是结婚日
university culture 大学文化
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.
光棍节最先在90年代的江苏南京各大高校兴起。大学生们毕业了，把这个传统带到了社会上，光棍节就成了时尚青年们的一个特殊节日。
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.