Singles and boys

November 11th was a singles' day. At least in China, that is. And I spent most of it on schoolwork.

I've never heard of the singles' day celebrated anywhere else. The date "11/11" is just perfect though: four ones, aka singles. According to internet sources, it started in the 1990s from a Chinese university mostly as a joke, but then has evolved into mainstream. But mostly it's still celebrated in schools. As well as the subsequent day (here at Tsinghua -- I think the date fluctuates from school to school), the boys' day.

It sure pays to get friendly with the local kids.. erm girls? Again, most of them are from the tv station anyway. At eleven fifty on singles' day, just about when I was going to go to bed, I got a phone call from one of them to come down and out my dormitory. Believe me, you want to pick this call up. So right after midnight, I was greeted with four (!) girls from the tv station, which is a kind of primary peer group of mine here, as us exchange students don't have our "home classes", similar to high school.

What's this boys' day then? Well, the girls are supposed to give their male classmates presents and boys are supposed to pretend they didn't know the girls were preparing. And vice versa on girls' day in the spring. A) I'm just glad I don't have to go through all the trouble in the spring because I'll be gone by then lol and B) ... did I have a B?

Anyway, I guess in a culture experiencing such a rapid change from traditional to modern there are lots of lonely souls caught in the middle of the fray, and so the need for these kinds of festivities exists. Not implying anything but I sure enjoyed my "surprise". They gave me a hot cup of coffee and a pair of gloves, with my initials and a text "THTV" (Tsinghua TV) on it. So heartwarming, right?

It's about time I needed a new pair of gloves anyway... ;)