Bless them. Bless their cold, dark hearts. In what might be the greatest-ever Valentine’s Day prank, a group of Shanghai singles purchased every odd-numbered seat for a Feb. 14 showing of Beijing Love Story. Their sole purpose: disrupting lovey-dovey dates. “Want to see a movie on Valentine’s Day?” asks a message posted by an organizer. “Sorry, you’ll have to sit separately. Absence makes the heart grow fonder.” Tell that to the millions of Chinese who will be spending the day in the absence of a date. With a population of 1.3 billion, China naturally has hefty share of the world’s singletons. This is compounded by a dramatic gender imbalance. Thanks to the one-child policy and preference for sons, there are an estimated 34 million ‘surplus men’ in China — a whole lot of lonely hearts. Luckily, the country’s unattached have a history of being awesome; they’ve even got their own day. Since the 1990s, Nov. 11 have been celebrated as Singles Day. It was picked because the numerals — 11/11 — are said to look like ‘bare branches,’ a Chinese term for bachelors. It started as an occasion to get together for a meal, but has since morphed into a multi-billion dollar orgy of online shopping. Valentine’s day is also celebrated (if you’re into that type of thing). As I left my apartment block this morning, an older gentleman entered through the lantern-drapped gate, a bouquet of pink and white flowers tucked under his arm. All of Beijing’s best restaurants have been booked up table-for-two by table-for-two. The self-described “computer nerd” that spearheaded the Shanghai theater stunt said he was just trying to do something nice for fellow singles. He initially tried to buy all the the tickets in the theater, he told the Shanghai Morning Post, but was turned down. Things came together when he started a campaign on a crowd-funding site and, working with fellow singles, snapped up the requisite seats. The best part may be the comments it generated online. For every “No wonder you’re single,” there were witty rejoinders and high-fives to spare. “No choice but to go on a blind date now,” joked one commenter, according to a translation by ChinaSmack. “Now most lovers will go to the hotel directly,” quipped another. Gazing at the checkerboard seats, one netizen had this to offer: “If he bought the white seats, he could’ve saved nine tickets.” Unromantic and cheap? You have won my heart. |
祝福他們,祝福他們冰冷,黑暗的心。 《北京愛(ài)情故事》在情人節(jié)上映,上海的一些單身族買(mǎi)下了影院里所有的單號(hào)座位,此舉成為有史以來(lái)最厲害的情人節(jié)惡作劇。他們唯一的目的就是破壞情人約會(huì)。“情人節(jié)想看電影?不好意思,請(qǐng)分開(kāi)坐。小別勝新婚哦!”一名的惡作劇的組織者說(shuō)。 據(jù)了解,中國(guó)有成百上千的人過(guò)著單身情人節(jié)。擁有13億人口的中國(guó),世界單身家族自然也少不了中國(guó)。中國(guó)存在著戲劇性的性別失衡。由于獨(dú)生子女政策和重男思想,中國(guó)存在約3400萬(wàn)人口的性別順差——都是一顆顆孤獨(dú)的心。 幸運(yùn)的是,這個(gè)國(guó)家的單身公民獨(dú)立意識(shí)很強(qiáng),他們有自己的節(jié)日。20世紀(jì)90年代以來(lái),11月11日被作為“光棍節(jié)”。人們選11月11日是因?yàn)?1這個(gè)數(shù)字看起來(lái)像中國(guó)的中國(guó)的這些單身漢。一開(kāi)始它只是作為人們聚會(huì)的一個(gè)理由,但逐漸轉(zhuǎn)變成數(shù)十億美元的瘋狂購(gòu)物行為。 情人節(jié)還有很多其他的慶祝形式。今早我離開(kāi)小區(qū)時(shí)看到有個(gè)老人胳膊下夾著一束粉色和白色相間的花。北京所有高級(jí)飯店推出了情侶座位。 上海影院惡作劇的電腦迷說(shuō),他只是想為單身者們做件好事。他向上海晨報(bào)透露,最初他是想買(mǎi)下電影院里所有的票,但是被拒絕了。后來(lái)他號(hào)召了一伙單身參與座位席的搶購(gòu)。 最精彩的地方就是網(wǎng)友的評(píng)論。在ChinaSmack網(wǎng)站上,很多人評(píng)論“難怪你還是單身”來(lái)指責(zé)惡作劇的人。一位網(wǎng)友開(kāi)玩笑說(shuō):“現(xiàn)在別無(wú)選擇,只能去相親了?!绷硪晃徽{(diào)侃道:“現(xiàn)在很多情侶都直接去酒店了?!?/p> 看著棋盤(pán)似的座位,一個(gè)網(wǎng)友說(shuō):“買(mǎi)白色的空位,你還可以省9張票呢!”其實(shí)一點(diǎn)都不浪漫,不便宜嗎?買(mǎi)兩張票坐一個(gè)座位,情侶們還要感謝你! (譯者 匡仁峰 編輯 丹妮) |