November 11 is a day of sombre reflection and remembrance in many Western countries, but in China it’s a day for tongue-in-cheek celebration of singledom.
Young Chinese people are fond of contriving “festivals” out of a particular date’s visual connotations, and the numbers “11.11” look enough like “bare sticks” (Chinese slang for being single) to justify the anointment of November 11 as a day of celebration of the solo life.
Those youtiao (cruller, or fried dough sticks) and baozi (stuffed, steamed buns) in the photo above are what your elderly relatives or becoupled peers would try to make you eat for breakfast today, naively believing that this will put you on a dough-fueled fast-track to true romance.
To enhance the karma in your favor, The Cleaver Quarterly team has also put some other iconic Chinese foodstuffs (and drinks) to work to wish you a Happy Singles’ Day from Beijing.
It’s Singles Day here in China and time to repost one of our first ever posts as a reminder to get you to check out our new website at www.thecleaverquarterly.com
