Chinese couples yesterday flocked to registry offices to marry in the belief that the “11/11/11” date is the most auspicious in a century.
Nov. 11 has been celebrated as an unofficial “singles’ day” in China since the 1990s — as the date is composed of the number one — and it is seen as a good day to marry and leave the single life behind.
However, this year is viewed as particularly special because the year also ends in the number 11.
More than 200 couples packed into a marriage registration office in downtown Shanghai yesterday morning, some having lined up for hours before its doors opened to ensure they were among the first to marry.
Hotel manager Li Xue, 26, originally planned to marry in February, but she brought forward her plans because of the special day.
“We are getting married on the day of ‘six ones.’ We will no longer be single on the once-in-a-century singles’ day,” she said as she waited for her turn to marry.
Shanghai alone had more than 3,300 couples who booked to marry yesterday, but the final tally could be higher as it does not include people who walk-in unannounced, a civil affairs bureau spokeswoman said.
Other Chinese cities reported a similar mania for marriage.
In the eastern city of Nanjing, more than 3,000 couples planned to marry yesterday — 10 times the usual daily average, Xinhua news agency said. More than 1,300 pairs were to tie the knot in eastern Hangzhou City.
The day, though not officially acknowledged by the government, has become a commercial bonanza.
On the popular online shopping site Taobao Mall run by Internet giant Alibaba, merchants slashed prices by up to 50 percent in honor of the day.
Chinese media used the event to probe the phenomenon of so-called “leftover women,” typically women in their 30s who are unable or unwilling to marry, as higher incomes and greater opportunities make some delay settling down.
“Women have access to higher education and many have been given the chance to compete with men in the workplace,” Zhu Fuqiang, an economics professor at Zhongshan University, told Xinhua.
“They do not need to attach their livelihoods and happiness to men,” he said.
Far from the violence ravaging Haiti, a market on the border with the Dominican Republic has maintained a welcome degree of normal everyday life. At the Dajabon border gate, a wave of Haitians press forward, eager to shop at the twice-weekly market about 200km from Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince. They are drawn by the market’s offerings — food, clothing, toys and even used appliances — items not always readily available in Haiti. However, with gang violence bad and growing ever worse in Haiti, the Dominican government has reinforced the usual military presence at the border and placed soldiers on alert. While the market continues to
An image of a dancer balancing on the words “China Before Communism” looms over Parisian commuters catching the morning metro, signaling the annual return of Shen Yun, a controversial spectacle of traditional Chinese dance mixed with vehement criticism of Beijing and conservative rhetoric. The Shen Yun Performing Arts company has slipped the beliefs of a spiritual movement called Falun Gong in between its technicolored visuals and leaping dancers since 2006, with advertising for the show so ubiquitous that it has become an Internet meme. Founded in 1992, Falun Gong claims nearly 100 million followers and has been subject to “persistent persecution” in
ONLINE VITRIOL: While Mo Yan faces a lawsuit, bottled water company Nongfu Spring and Tsinghua University are being attacked amid a rise in nationalist fervor At first glance, a Nobel prize winning author, a bottle of green tea and Beijing’s Tsinghua University have little in common, but in recent weeks they have been dubbed by China’s nationalist netizens as the “three new evils” in the fight to defend the country’s valor in cyberspace. Last month, a patriotic blogger called Wu Wanzheng filed a lawsuit against China’s only Nobel prize-winning author, Mo Yan (莫言), accusing him of discrediting the Communist army and glorifying Japanese soldiers in his fictional works set during the Japanese invasion of China. Wu, who posts online under the pseudonym “Truth-Telling Mao Xinghuo,” is seeking
‘SURPRISES’: The militants claim to have successfully tested a missile capable of reaching Mach 8 and vowed to strike ships heading toward the Cape of Good Hope Yemen’s Houthi rebels claim to have a new, hypersonic missile in their arsenal, Russia’s state media reported on Thursday, potentially raising the stakes in their attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and surrounding waterways against the backdrop of Israel’s war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The report by the state-run RIA Novosti news agency cited an unidentified official, but provided no evidence for the claim. It comes as Moscow maintains an aggressively counter-Western foreign policy amid its grinding war on Ukraine. However, the Houthis have for weeks hinted about “surprises” they plan for the battles at sea to counter the