Unattached 'sticks' look forward to Singles' Day

BEIJING - Unattached Chinese individuals are celebrating Singles' Day, or Guanggun Festival in Chinese, which falls on Nov 11 every year.

Guanggun literally means "bare sticks" for the 11th day of the 11th month is dominated by the number 1, similar in shape to a stick. Guanggun also denotes a Chinese slang, meaning "single people".

The festival this year is being deemed as "the ultimate Singles' Day of the century", as the year 2011 also contains two "sticks" in it.

"I'm going to summon some friends on the Internet and celebrate the century's biggest Singles' Day with them," said Ji Guangzhong, a 23-year-old man in Shenyang, Northeast China's Liaoning province.

"I don't even mind if they are male," added Ji. "Being alone on the day makes me feel miserable."

He made the remark at a shopping mall, which has put up six three-meter-tall bare sticks in front of its gate. Employees working at the mall have been asked to dress like a fuzzy bear on Friday. Holding inflatable hammers, the "bears" will attack couples who show intimacy in public on behalf of single people. The couples attacked will receive presents later.

"But, it'll be better if the mall gave us, single people, comforting presents," Ji said.

The traditional way to observe the day is to have four fried dough sticks and an egg or a steamed stuffed bun for breakfast, which together represent the date "11.11".

First celebrated by a group of college students in Nanjing, East China's Jiangsu province, Singles' Day now is a nationwide pop culture holiday. It even has its own anthem - Love Song for Singles - whose lyrics read, "The more frustrated you feel in pursuing love, the more courageous you should become."