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从光棍节到购物狂欢节
每年的11月11日是“光棍节”。节如其名，这个新鲜的节日是专门为那些还过着单身生活的人们设立的。我在网上搜索了一下，惊讶地发现中国是世界上唯一一个专门为光棍们设立节日的国家。现在就跟我一起了解一下这个节日吧！
Singles’ Day falls on every November 11th, and as the name indicates, this relatively new holiday is one exclusively for people who are still living the single life. I was a bit surprised when I searched “Singles’ Day” on the Internet, to find that China is the only country in the world that has set aside a special day for singles to celebrate their lives. Let me tell you some more about this celebration.
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，终日打麻将度过。
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.
有一天他们打麻将从早上11点打到了晚上11点。奇妙的是，不管谁赢，都赢在了“四条”上。更加巧合的是，这一天正是11月11号。为了纪念这一天，他们给它命名为“光棍节”。
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 (the card shows four independent, parallel columns in two lines). Even more of a coincidence, it was Nov 11, or 11/11. In order to commemorate the day, they nicknamed it Singles’ Day.
光棍节最先在上世纪90年代的江苏南京各大高校兴起。之所以叫“光棍节”是因为这一天的日子有四个光棍一样的“1”。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。
Singles’ Day was first celebrated at various universities in Nanjing, capital city of Jiangsu Province during the 1990s. It got the name Singles’ Day because the date is comprised of four "ones". These college students have since graduated, and carried their university tradition into society. Singles’ Day is now a special day for all fashionable youths.
主流的庆祝方式就是和光棍朋友们一起搓一顿，而且一定要实行AA制。为了脱离单身，人们也会举办相亲会，介绍单身男女认识。
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.
光棍节的早上，单身青年们会吃四根油条，代表11.11的四个“1”，再吃一个包子，代表11和11之间的那个点。
For breakfast on Singles’ Day, singles often eat four youtiao (deep-fried dough sticks) representing the four "ones" in "11.11" and one baozi (steamed stuffed buns) representing the middle dot.
很多单身朋友选择在这一天告别单身，一些人参加相亲会，一些人则在今天结婚。四个“1”不仅可以代表单身，还可以代表“唯一”，这也成了一些人的爱情告白日。
Many singles also choose to say goodbye to their single lives on this day. Many attend “blind date” parties and many people choose to marry on this day. In addition to meaning “single” the four “ones” of the date can also mean “only one” as in “the only one for me”. Some people will use this date and this meaning to tell their special someone that they are the only “one” in their heart.
随着时间的发展，中国的“光棍节”今天已经变成了一个“购物节”。
With time China's “Singles' Day” has became a shopping holiday today。
2009年，中国的电商巨头阿里巴巴将这一天变成了网络购物的狂欢节，因为这个日子既好记，又恰逢其时，因为它刚好在国庆节和农历新年之间的消费低迷期。所以“双十一”一下子火起来了，并掀起了遍及中国这个全球第二大经济体的购买狂潮。
In 2009, China's e-commerce giant Alibaba set the day as a shopping carnival for online sales as the date was both easy to remember and perfectly timed as it hit between the consumer spending lull between National Day and Chinese New Year. It soon became a hit, and Double Eleven became a buying frenzy spread across the world's second largest economy.
按照官方数据统计，中国的单身人士总数已达到2.4亿。而在90后单身群体中，有近70％的人谈恋爱少于2次，还有超过20％的人一直没有谈过恋爱。2018年，中国的结婚率仅为7.2％，创十年来新低。
Official data suggests that the total number of singles in China has reached 240 million. Nearly 70 percent of the post-90s singles have been involved in less than two relationships, and over 20 percent of them have been single for most of their lives. In 2018, the country's marriage rate stood at merely 7.2 percent, a record low in a decade.
尽管越来越多的“光棍”令父母感到担忧，但这一人口结构的变化已成为零售商和服务商们新的商业机会。
Even though a rising number of "bare sticks" are worrisome to parents, the demographic shift has become a new commercial opportunity for retailers and service providers.
1985年到1995年期间出生的单身群体，他们通常收入不错，他们愿意花钱，永不放弃对更突出、更精致、更多样化的产品或服务的追求。也正是因为这样的原因，昨日的“光棍节”最终变成了今天的“购物狂欢节”！
The singles born between 1985 and 1995 generally earn a decent pay. They are willing to spend money. They never give up the pursuit of more prominent, more refined, and more diversified products or services. Therefore, “Singles' Day” has inevitably become a shopping holiday today.
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发表于 2019-11-10 22:50:09
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发表于 2019-11-10 23:39:47
