ARTS / MUSIC
Taylor Swift steals the show during Alibaba's online shopping gala for Singles' Day
Published: Nov 12, 2019 02:16 PM

Taylor Swift Photo: IC

Taylor Swift Photo: IC



For most Chinese people, Singles' Day, which fell on Monday, is a day for heading online to snatch up some amazing deals, but for Taylor Swift fans, it meant so much more this year.  

Young Chinese started celebrating the informal holiday on November 11 during the 1990s. This date was chosen because the four 1s in the date represent four individuals standing alone. In more recent years, however, e-commerce giants have turned it into a huge day for sales that even outperforms Black Friday in the US. 

This year, Singles' Day sales on China's TMall reached 10 billion yuan ($1.44 billion) just one minute and 36 seconds after midnight on Sunday night.

Along with the rocketing sales, starting on 7:30 pm on Singles' Day's eve, China's e-commerce giant Alibaba hosted a four-hour-long live show that was broadcast on various platforms. Among the stellar performances by hugely popular Chinese and international celebrities, Taylor Swift stood firmly in the spotlight as she closed out the gala with three songs right before midnight.

Her trip to China was highly anticipated as the last time she visited China was for her Shanghai concert in 2015. 

After her performance on Singles' Day, she also attended a fan meet in Guangzhou, South China's Guangdong Province on Monday. The fans prepared a shuttle to the venue, which was painted pink and decorated with huge photos of their idol. While the event started around 8 pm, some fans began lining up at the venue in the early afternoon. Before Taylor came on stage, fans at the stadium were already singing together one song after another. 

"While we were taking a group photo with Taylor on stage, I whispered to her, 'I love you so much'. I really really did not expect for her to turn around and say to me 'I love you too!'" posted a fan on China's Twitter-like Sina Weibo.

With fans in Guangzhou eagerly sharing their excitement and those across the country joining in on the discussions, Swift's fan meet immediately topped the trending list on Sina Weibo.

"That you care about the music I make means so much to me, and I hope you know that," Swift said on stage at the fan meet.