In past year's I have shared some of the International Women's Day sales promotions I have come across
in Zhongshan,
in Jieyang, and
in Guangzhou. At the moment I happen to be in Jiangmen —another city in Guangdong province. So yesterday I spent some time walking through several shopping malls and nearby shopping areas in the city. There was no shortage of promotions for the holiday, though many stores had no sales or had unrelated sales, including lingering Lunar New Year promotions.
As in past years, one noticeable aspect of the promotions were the various names used to identify the day. Yet I didn't see a single example where the standard Chinese translation for International Women's Day, 妇女节, was used. Instead, Chinese names which would translate as "Goddess Day" (女神) and "Queen's Day" (女王) were common. Some places went with "女人节" which could also translate to "Women's Day" in English. And a number of stores included the day's name in English, often going with "Queen's Day" or "Women's Day".
Chen Yan in Sixth Tone mentions a possible explanation for why the formal name in Chinese was avoided:
More and more young Chinese women are shunning International Women’s Day, a problem that is partially due to nomenclature. Women’s Day is translated as funüjie, a word that contains a term that youngsters increasingly use to refer to older, married women and that connotes a certain frumpiness and a lack of sophistication.
That still might not fully explain the choice of Watson's — a health & beauty care chain store. They went with "我们节" which could be translated as "Our Day", seemingly quite a big difference in meaning. But there's a catch. Written in pinyin, the first two characters are "Wo men".
Just to be sure, I asked an employee and she confirmed that indeed "Wo Men's Day" referred to International Women's Day and was a cross-language pun. At the very least, it strikes me as a curious choice.
Whatever name stores settled on, the promotions went on.
So if you were seeking a Women's Day special for Californian-style food in Jiangmen yesterday, you were in luck.
Other Western-style food options were available as well.
Seeking something Asian? Well, there was Thai.
And if you wanted Yunnan-style, there were options as well.
Baked goods? No problem.
Some tea? Loving Tea beckoned the goddesses.
Shiny Tea did as well.
Seeking something simple and healthy? There was a fruit store that didn't miss out on the day.
There were many options for clothing.
Shoes and hand bags were on sale too.
Glasses? No problem.
Along with a number of other jewelry stores, both China Gold and Hong Kong Gold had promotions.
Seeking health & beauty care products without a "Wo Men" theme? Mannings, a chain similar to Watsons, went with the more typical "Queen's Day".
And, yes, you could go to the supermarket for some Goddess Day savings.
Finally, while several nail salons I passed didn't have a promotion for the day, IMP Nails was ready for Queen's Day.
So finding an International Women's Day deal in Jiangmen, and
elsewhere in China, wasn't at all hard yesterday. But not everybody in China thought that was a good thing. And so on International Women's Day,
some feminists who criticized how the day was observed were censored.
The promotions went on though.
