What the Hell is Singles' Day?

An illustration for the Chinese e-commerce holiday Singles' Day

Chinese Singles' Day, or Guanggun Jie (光棍节), is an entertaining festival widely celebrated by young Chinese people. The festival is originally about celebrating being single. Singles' Day is held on the 11th of November aka 11.11.

You may have noticed that your office is suddenly getting less kuaidi deliveries, this is all due to shoppers holding off in anticipation of great bargains on singles day. This festival has turned into the largest online shopping day in the world, with sales in Alibaba's sites Tmall and 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. Loads of the big online retailers offer astonishing discounts. So after 11.11, kuadi deliveries will be off the charts. Your office will be full of Taobao boxes.

Chinese Singles' Day began as Bachelors' Day (as if boys don’t already get enough). It originated in Nanjing in the 1990’s and was started by a group of students there. Now Singles' day is celebrated all over China, as well as in some areas outside of China.

Singles' Day is meant to serve as an occasion for single people to party with their single friends. But in China, being single is not something that is generally thought of a positive. In fact, if a women is still single over the age of 27 she is referred to as a ‘left over woman’ or ‘sheng nv’ (剩女). People generally use Singles' day as an excuse to set people up to go on blind dates and generally do anything they can to stop people from being single. Luckily this is falling away and Singles' Day is more commonly known for online sales.

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. Shopping promotions were highlighted throughout China and activities were widespread.

So whilst 2017 can never live up to 2011, we are hoping you have a good Singles' day. Add everything you have ever wanted to your Taobao basket in the hope it goes on sale, and get ready to be set up on an awkward blind date by your mate.

Happy single-hood everybody.

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