Hundreds of Chinese youth mark "Singles Festival"
(xinhuanews.net)
Updated: 2005-11-14 10:43

Maybe the arabic numeral of "one" brings too much sentimental feeling for romantic unmarried men and women. The "Singles Festival" was marked spontaneously on Nov. 11 by hundreds of youth across China.

A ball held in a park in west China's Chongqing Municipality in honor of "singles" on Friday turned out to be a match-making occasion for more than 400 people, reported China Daily on Saturday.

Joyful women threw out knitted balls into the crowd of men, which was a modern mock of a traditional Chinese way of knotting a romantic relationship. Only in the modern version, the girls abandoned the shyness, and attached their names and phone numbers on the balls that they threw out to men.

The newspaper quoted a professor from the Faculty of Social Science of the Chongqing Normal University as saying that the so-called "bachelor culture" represented by the "Singles Festival" was a rebellion against traditional values.

"Many single people nowadays are highly educated and financially independent. By choosing to stay single, they can pursue individual freedom whereas marriage implies more social responsibility," said the professor Hou.

Meanwhile in Shanghai, Beijing and east China's Zhejiang Province, similar events were held in forms of party and travel for singles.