520

In 1998, Taiwanese singer Mavis Fan first associated "520" with "I love you" in her song "Digital Love," but it didn't become popular. In 2010, due to promotion by businesses in mainland China, it first became an online Valentine's Day and expanded from online to offline. The reason is that the initials /n/ and /l/ are easily confused in some Chinese dialects, causing 520 (wǔ èr líng) to sound like "我爱你" wǒ ài nǐ (Mandarin for "I love you"). However, In Cantonese, "520" (唔易拎 m4 ji6 ling1) has a completely different meaning: "not easy to carry," implying that love is difficult to maintain. Some Cantonese speakers also say that 520 sounds like "唔要你" (m4 jiu3 nei5), which means "I don't want you.