买断单号票：中国人情人节剧院恶作剧

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-desscribed “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.

祝福他们，祝福他们冰冷，黑暗的心。

《北京爱情故事》在情人节上映，上海的一些单身族买下了影院里所有的单号座位，此举成为有史以来最厉害的情人节恶作剧。他们唯一的目的就是破坏情人约会。“情人节想看电影？不好意思，请分开坐。小别胜新婚哦！”一名的恶作剧的组织者说。

据了解，中国有成百上千的人过着单身情人节。拥有13亿人口的中国，世界单身家族自然也少不了中国。中国存在着戏剧性的性别失衡。由于独生子女政策和重男思想，中国存在约3400万人口的性别顺差——都是一颗颗孤独的心。

幸运的是，这个国家的单身公民独立意识很强，他们有自己的节日。20世纪90年代以来，11月11日被作为“光棍节”。人们选11月11日是因为11这个数字看起来像中国的中国的这些单身汉。一开始它只是作为人们聚会的一个理由，但逐渐转变成数十亿美元的疯狂购物行为。

情人节还有很多其他的庆祝形式。今早我离开小区时看到有个老人胳膊下夹着一束粉色和白色相间的花。北京所有高级饭店推出了情侣座位。

上海影院恶作剧的电脑迷说，他只是想为单身者们做件好事。他向上海晨报透露，最初他是想买下电影院里所有的票，但是被拒绝了。后来他号召了一伙单身参与座位席的抢购。

最精彩的地方就是网友的评论。在ChinaSmack网站上，很多人评论“难怪你还是单身”来指责恶作剧的人。一位网友开玩笑说：“现在别无选择，只能去相亲了。”另一位调侃道：“现在很多情侣都直接去酒店了。”

看着棋盘似的座位，一个网友说：“买白色的空位，你还可以省9张票呢！”其实一点都不浪漫，不便宜吗？买两张票坐一个座位，情侣们还要感谢你！