If 1 is the loneliest number, singles can feel six times as forlorn today_其他

If 1 is the loneliest number, singles can feel six times as forlorn today

There is a term called "tuo guang" that is hot around this time. Literally, it means, "stripping naked", but it is actually short for "removing the stigma of being companionless". According to reports, the pun has galvanized some to streak - mostly in their dormitories with windows shut, though.

Retailers love holidays, and even an unofficial one like this has not escaped their promotional fervor.

Anything that looks like a stick, such as fried dough sticks or candy canes, are said to be popular.

Some use the sugarcoated haws on a stick, which is a local snack sold on streets in North China, to show off their determination to find a spouse - by quickly eating up all the haws, a visual pun for "tuo guang" that logically should mean the opposite: turning from attachment to bachelorhood.

The Guanggun Festival is still evolving as it gains more trappings of tradition and urban mythology.

With tens of millions of young men projected to join the ranks of the haplessly single and with the daunting task of a marriage proposal that makes property ownership a prerequisite, the bachelor party in a nation of 1.3 billion can get only larger and rowdier.

There are already complaints that one day a year is not enough to tout one's forced singleness. Jan 1, or 1-1, is added as a mini-festival. And Jan 11 and Nov 1, or 1-11 and 11-1, are considered medium-level ones that lead up to the grand day.