"You must marry!"

“你必须结婚！”

It's a phrase many single Chinese are steeling themselves to hear from well-meaning but busybody relatives during the Lunar New Year holiday, which begins on Feb. 7.

春节期间，中国众多单身男女将从善意但爱管闲事的亲戚们那里听到这句话。今年春节假期从2月7日开始。

So great is the social pressure to marry that the phrase "bihun!" or "must marry," is a meme here, a joke, even. Not marrying and producing offspring is considered unfilial and Chinese society traditionally views the unmarried as less than full adults. That places unbearable pressure on people who have been unlucky in love and especially on young women, for whom the pressure to marry may begin as young as 20, the legal marrying age for women.

结婚的社会压力太大，使“逼婚”在中国成了一个热词，甚至成为人们的谈资。按照中国社会的传统，没有婚姻的人生是“不完整”的，不结婚和不生娃就是“不孝”。这给情路坎坷的单身族带来不可承受之重，尤其是年轻女性，对她们来说，结婚压力在刚达到20岁的法定婚龄时就开始了。

Reflecting all that, "bihun" has given rise to a thriving matchmaking industry for singletons who may prefer to rent a partner for the holiday to deceive their relatives rather than face the badgering. It even provided the theme for a popular 24-part television series, "Renting a Girlfriend to Go Home for New Year."

因此，“逼婚”成就了“男女友租赁”这一红火行业，他们为想租个“恋人”回家过年的人服务。这些单身族宁可欺骗亲戚，也不愿听家人唠叨。很受欢迎的24集电视剧《租个女友回家过年》素材就来源于此。

This year, a group of like-minded friends decided to push back and paid for an ad extolling singlehood to go up on Thursday at the busy Dongzhimen subway station in Beijing, where it can be seen by millions over the month it will be there.

今年，一群志同道合的年轻人决定回击。他们掏钱制作了一个广告赞扬单身的好处。本周四该广告投放在人流熙攘的北京东直门地铁站，未来一个月数百万人会看到。

Only one, though. At 38,000 renminbi, for a 3-by-4.5-foot ad, the group of about 10, who include students, artists and civil society workers who met via social media, cannot afford more, said Coby, 27, a nongovernmental worker who, fearing the impact on her private life if her Chinese name were published, asked to be identified only by her English name.

但广告只有一幅，因为1米*1.5米的广告需要3.8万元人民币，这个由学生、艺术工作者和社会工作者通过社交媒体结识的小组约有10人，只能负担这么多。27岁的小组成员、社会工作者“科比”接受电话采访时，担心个人私生活收到影响，要求不透露中文姓名。

"We're just a few friends who got together before Spring Festival," as Lunar New Year is also called, "and just thought, the pressure is too much. It's at its worst at this time. It's so big!" Coby said in a telephone interview. "So we thought we'd put up an ad in the subway where a lot of people would see it."

她说，“几个朋友春节前聚会，只是觉得压力太大了，春节期间尤其糟糕。压力山大!所以我们觉得或许能在地铁站登个广告，让很多人看到它。”

Making that happen involved submitting designs to an advertising company, which vetted them with the local branch of the Beijing Industry and Commerce Bureau.

这需要向广告公司提交设计方案，还需要北京工商局的审核批准。

The company and the officials rejected an initial design that showed a defiant young woman with her hands crossed above her head in a "no!" gesture, the sun shining fiercely behind her, the characters for "bihun" crossed out on her T-shirt.

广告公司和相关官员没有同意该小组提交的初稿。初稿设计中， 一名面露挑衅神色的年轻女性双手交叉于头上，摆出“不”的姿势。阳光从她身后直射而来，身穿的T恤衫上写的“不婚”被打叉。

No reason was given, said Xiong Jing, another member of the group.

小组另一名成员熊晶(音)说，具体原因不得而知。

"So we chose a gentler design," Coby said.

科比说，“所以我们选择了更温和的设计方案。”

Here's the final product:

下面是终版广告：

It reads:

文字：

"Dear Daddy, Mommy, don't worry.

亲爱的爸爸妈妈别担心，

The world is so big.

世界那么大，

There are so many different ways for people to live.

人生有很多种，

Singletons can also be very happy."

单身也可以很幸福。

And this is followed by a hotline for singles.

下面还有一条给单身族的热线电话。