Remembrance Day as Singles Day

Today is Poppy Day, Veterans Day, Single's Day!

In China the day (literally bare sticks day) is celebrated by singles gathering for dinner to celebrate their continued singleness. Over its relatively short lifespan, it was first celebrated in 1993, it has morphed into a sort of sales day extravaganza. As you can imagine, last year's Single's Day (11.11.11) was the Single's Day rapture of almost Black Friday proportions.

It isn't all fun and games and shopping though.

Due to China's One Child policy, there are 50 million men doomed to singleness. For these men there is enormous family pressure to marry.  Pressure is not limited to just men though. Men may be in surplus, but quality is in short supply. It's snobbish to say so, I admit. But as we all know, more women graduate from university than men. Hence, for some Single's Day is devoted to speed dating. Now for the tangent.

In the United States, just glancing at the data, the assumption that more women than men are graduating from university is justified. It also seems justified for the United Kingdom. Listening to Chinese academics, you'd think something similar is occuring in China. It isn't.

In 2004, women made up 43.8 percent of undergraduate students, rising to 49.6 by 2012, according to Education Ministry figures cited by The 21st Century Business Herald. 

In master’s programs, women made up 44.1 percent of students in 2004, rising to 50.3 by 2010. Among doctoral candidates in 2010, however, just over 35.4 percent were women, up from 31.3 in 2004.

Turns out China is introducing gender quotas to keeps things "balanced".

The rules affected students like Ouyang Le, according to Ms. Xiong. A fresh graduate from a Guangzhou high school, Ms. Ouyang had wanted to study at the University of International Relations. She scored 614 points on the gaokao, but as a woman, needed 628. If Ms. Ouyang had been a man, she would have needed just 609.

Quotas are nothing new. The Qing imposed both provincial and ethnic quotas. And provinces have long reserved more places for local students. But the fairness of the gaokao, the university entrance exam, is something people care about; but protests are understandably muted.