In less than a decade, it has drastically evolved. In fact, an unidentified bar in Shenyang, Liaoning distanced itself from the shopping and romance by providing a writhing dancer in a bikini for its patrons to freely pour beer upon.

Maybe it’s slowly becoming China’s version of the popular US “Spring Break”?

“Dancing in a wading pool covered in beer” isn’t normally a popular activity in China, a country known for its conservative attitudes towards sexuality, and was not well-received by netizens online. One person said, “Vulgarity without limits.” Another person wrote, “Despicable. This isn’t a promotion for a (bar), this is flat-out prostitution! People nowadays really have no restraints holding them back.”

Yet another person took the opportunity to point out: “I can see a police car outside the window (in the last picture).”

With this latest salvo shot in the War on Singles’ Day, who can say if November 11 will become the future date for wet T-shirt competitions and beer bong consumption in what will potentially be China’s own Spring Break festival.

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As with many of the events held last week, the show was another Singles’ Day event. And in staying true to the Day’s focus on consumerism, the event showcased the models carrying a number of handbags.

Bizarrely, this is not the first time China has attempted to draw a connection between bikinis and Peking Opera. In 2012, the 37th Annual Miss Bikini International Contest outfitted contestants in Peking Opera headdresses while performing in bikinis. Needless to say, the Chinese public was not impressed with the trivialization of traditional Chinese culture, and the event drew public condemnation (video here).

And yet, somehow, “bikinis and Peking Opera” remains a mainstay of fashion shows and beauty pageants. This past August, Jinan was again the scene of a “Peking Opera-themed bikini show” in which contestants wore bikinis along with Peking Opera-styled headdresses (seen below):

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On the eve of Singles’ Day this year on November 10, online retailers in Panyu, Guangdong were getting ready for the biggest sales day of the year by holding a pep rally. But this wasn’t any normal rally: it included altars of Jack Ma as well as Liu Qiangdong, the owner of rival e-commerce platform Jingdong, in front of which participants bowed on their knees and offered traditional sacrificial offerings of roast pig, among other things (like cans of beer).

In the same way that Chinese farmers prayed to the gods for a good harvest in the year to come, the online retailers were praying for a bountiful and prosperous Singles’ Day. Their prayers are seen lined out in signs on the altar before them: no holding back of funds, no deductions of (online) “likes”, no adverse criticisms, no overstocks, and no refunds of money or goods.

It could very well be that the treatment of Ma and Liu as deities is nothing more than a prank, as seen by the uncomfortable smiles of people pictured attending the ceremonies. On the other hand, the acts conducted in these photographs are the same as other religious ceremonies, and by that token, have the same significance to them.

There is one key difference though: most of the figures worshipped by Chinese in such rituals are already dead.

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A viral post on Facebook shows a Woolworth’s customer purchasing nearly the entire stock of A2 Platinum baby formula, which is about 50 tins, prompting outrage from Australian parents who already have trouble finding baby formula.

Jessica Hay, the mother who took the photos, was furious at the act of hoarding. “My blood was boiling for the mothers having problems finding A2 for their babies. I was feeling sensitive because I’ve got a newborn,” said Hay. “If they were with babies, it would be understandable, they need to feed their kids too. But it felt like a smooth operation, like they did this all the time.”

Other people who responded to the Facebook post were equally angry. AnneMaree Chapman lashed out against Woolworth’s by saying, “We are in a formula shortage and you are allowing this? These people bought all of this A2 platinum formula… all of it. What happened to four tins maximum per person? Look at the empty crate in the picture?”

Woolworth’s currently has an eight-tin limit for each customer on the purchase of baby formula. However, Australian consumers are pressuring the chain to impose a four-tin limit throughout the country.

But at the same time a milk formula shortage is hitting Australia, this “white gold” can be found on Chinese e-commerce sites at marked up prices. Bellamy’s Organic Step 1 Infant Formula, which retails for $24.70, is being sold on Taobao for about double the price at $52.

The shortage of milk formula in Australia coincides with the arrival of Singles’ Day (November 11), China’s biggest day for retail sales that is similar to “Black Friday” Thanksgiving sales in the United States. The Chinese demand for imported milk formula also comes from an unwillingness by Chinese mothers to breastfeed as well as lingering fears from a 2008 food scandal involving milk products tainted with melamine that killed six infants.

But while Australian parents are growing anxious over the drought of baby formula, baby formula makers are reaping profits from the surge in demand. In September, A2 chief executive Geoff Babidge said its infant formula sales were on track to triple this financial year.

“We have had significant growth on online sites such as Alibaba, and also at retail level at grocery and pharmacy where Chinese tourists and nationals are often buying products on trips and taking it back with them,” Babidge said. “We are clearly demonstrating that we are having enormous traction with Chinese nationals. There is no question about that.”

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The traditional way to celebrate Singles’ Day is to eat four youzi (fried doughsticks) and a meat bun, which represents the dot between month and day.

David Beckham met with Jack Ma last week to develop a Singles’ Day promotion. Headlines have been flying around about China’s famous “Single’s Day”, with some comparing it to Black Friday for shopping in the United States. But what exactly is Singles’ Day? And why is it so important that Jack Ma is willing to pay David Beckham to promote it?

“Singles’ Day” is something of a mash-up of Chinese superstition and Western consumerism. The holiday takes its name from the date, November 11, and is most often represented as 11/11. Visually, the date represents a bunch of sticks in a line, which gives it its Chinese name, “Bare Sticks Festival”, or 光棍节. Although there are many theories explaining the origin of Singles’ Day, the most common one is that it was concocted by lonely university students to celebrate being single and relieve themselves of the pressures of getting married and raising a family.

Chinese numerology places importance on certain dates that sound like something else. For example, January 3, 2014 (2014/1/3), is significant because it sounds close to, “Love you for the rest of my life, and the end of my years.”

While the holiday was conceived as a celebration of singlehood, November 11 has slowly gained traction as another holiday for couples to celebrate their “couplehood”. It is now commonplace for couples to reserve the date for their weddings.

Singles’ Day was eventually added to the many dates “Chinese Valentine’s Day” is celebrated, including the traditional western Valentine’s Day on February 14, White Day on March 14 when women are expected to give gifts to their partners, Qixi Festival/Girls Day/Seven Sisters Festival on the seventh day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar, and now Singles’ Day.

Singles’ Day has quickly become a lucrative commercial opportunity for retailers. Although singles have no one to buy gifts for, except presumably themselves, couples have each other. Taobao was the first online retailer to create Singles’ Day promotions, and it was soon copied by several other online retailers who all offer games and the promise of cash rewards or discounts. It has become so popular that many retailers now strategically remove their best selling items on Singles Day to help get rid of unwanted stock.

Photo: Chinaface, nipic, pchouse

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Gift-giving helped turn it into a major shopping event as sellers of everything from jewelry to TVs to cars saw a marketing opportunity and launched Singles Day sales, according to the Washington Post.

On Nov. 11 this year, according to Southern Metropolis Daily, the money spent on Chinese shopping websites amounted to 100 years of U.S. President Barack Obama’s salary.

Shenzhen Daily reported that many shopping websites offered special discounts to mark the occasion and saw a hugely successful day as a result.

THE transaction volume on Tmall, Alibaba’s B2C subsidiary, and taobao.com, the country’s largest online shopping Web site and run by Alibaba, had reached 10 billion yuan (US$1.57 billion) through just 12 hours on Nov. 11, Tmall said on its micro blog.

A Shenzhen seller of iPhone cases, through taobao, said the business added staff for the promotion.

Now for the post-Single’s Day clean-up

Various other activities were held in the PRD to mark the occasion.

Nine couple’s who tied the knot in Foshan had their wedding photos taken at the city’s Yida Textiles Factory, Asia’s largest textiles factory, where they are employed. Southern Metropolis Daily was there to capture the couples’ special day.

One of the happy couples in their place of work.

A matchmaking event was held for mainlanders who studied in Hong Kong involving 50 boys and 50 girls who were hoping to say goodbye to their single status, according to Nanfang Daily.

A survey was conducted in Foshan to see why there were so many lonely hearts in the PRD’s thriving cities. In the survey conducted on 680 blue collar workers, it was revealed that 2 in 3 were single, and many men said that finding a girlfriend was harder than finding a good job.

The most common reason cited for failure to find a partner was that they did not earn enough money to attract anyone. Other reasons included that their jobs were too time-consuming or that they seldom had the chance to meet members of the opposite sex in their work.

Moreover, 24% of respondents said they had never been in love and a further 31% had only been in one relationship. A survey conducted in Dongguan saw similar results.

So, shopping websites can look forward to next year.

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