買斷單號票：中國人情人節劇院惡作劇

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.祝福他們，祝福他們冰冷，黑暗的心。

《北京愛情故事》在情人節上映，上海的一些單身族買下了影院裏所有的單號座位，此舉成爲有史以來最厲害的情人節惡作劇。他們唯一的目的就是破壞情人約會。“情人節想看電影？不好意思，請分開坐。小別勝新婚哦！”一名的惡作劇的組織者說。

據瞭解，中國有成百上千的人過着單身情人節。擁有13億人口的中國，世界單身家族自然也少不了中國。中國存在着戲劇性的性別失衡。由於獨生子女政策和重男思想，中國存在約3400萬人口的性別順差——都是一顆顆孤獨的心。

幸運的是，這個國家的單身公民獨立意識很強，他們有自己的節日。20世紀90年代以來，11月11日被作爲“光棍節”。人們選11月11日是因爲11這個數字看起來像中國的中國的這些單身漢。一開始它只是作爲人們聚會的一個理由，但逐漸轉變成數十億美元的瘋狂購物行爲。

情人節還有很多其他的慶祝形式。今早我離開小區時看到有個老人胳膊下夾着一束粉色和白色相間的花。北京所有高級飯店推出了情侶座位。

上海影院惡作劇的電腦迷說，他只是想爲單身者們做件好事。他向上海晨報透露，最初他是想買下電影院裏所有的票，但是被拒絕了。後來他號召了一夥單身參與座位席的搶購。

最精彩的地方就是網友的評論。在ChinaSmack網站上，很多人評論“難怪你還是單身”來指責惡作劇的人。一位網友開玩笑說：“現在別無選擇，只能去相親了。”另一位調侃道：“現在很多情侶都直接去酒店了。”

看着棋盤似的座位，一個網友說：“買白色的空位，你還可以省9張票呢！”其實一點都不浪漫，不便宜嗎？買兩張票坐一個座位，情侶們還要感謝你！