Loneliness Party (寂寞党)
Added 13 years ago by Ogreenworld • Updated about a year ago by Brad
Navigation |
About • Origin • Spread • Search Interest • External References • |
Type:
Tags: baidu catchphrase china chinese kuso relationship singledom
Additional References: Wikipedia
About
The Loneliness Party (寂寞党) refers to a group of Chinese Internet users who commiserate over their loneliness and singlehood, in similar vein to the Solo Regiment on the Korean web. The party was established following the emergence of the viral catchphrase "What (X) is (Y)ing is not (Z), It is Loneliness" in 2009 and continues to remain active.
Origin
In early July 2009, a forum user on the Chinese BBS community Baidu Tieba[1] posted a low-resolution webcam image of a man eating noodles with the accompanying text: "What [this] brother is eating aren't noodles, but loneliness!" (Chinese: 哥吃的不是面,是寂寞):
Shortly after the original post, other users on the forum began repeating this sentence with slight variations, giving birth to the phrasal template "What X is Y'ing is not Z, It is Loneliness" (Chinese: XY的不是Z,是寂寞) and a series of parody images centered around the theme of sad bachelorhood and loneliness. According to numerous user accounts on Baidu Tieba, the expression was likely inspired by the narcissistic catchphrase "Don't obsess over me, I'm only a legend" that became popular earlier that year.
Spread
The captioned image parodies quickly spread across other online forums, BBS sites and gaming communities, such as The End of the World forum (天涯社区发帖)[2], MOP forum[4] and World of Warcraft servers. The snowclone was similarly adapted as headlines for a number of Chinese blog posts and news articles including Tech CN.[6] In November that year, the Chinese version of social network game Happy Farm[5] featured a message that read: "It is not a kind of radish, it is loneliness."
Notable Quotes
Wenlong_wenlong wrote: What brother is earning is not money, but loneliness.
垂帘花影 wrote: What I am working is not overtime, but loneliness.
周祯杰 wrote: What your mother gave birth to was not you, but loneliness!
hetong wrote: What I speak are not words, but loneliness. What is filled in the sky is not air, but loneliness. In the tears I quietly weep flows loneliness. Loneliness follows me, and I too cannot separate myself from loneliness.
舞法舞天7 wrote: What I am getting is not soy sauce, but loneliness. What I am doing are not push ups, but loneliness. Jia Junpeng, who calls you to go home to eat is not your mother, but loneliness.
Image Macros
Some of the more notable expressions to emerge from Baidu, Sina and MOP forums include "What I am smoking is not cigarettes, it is loneliness" ("哥抽的不是烟,是寂寞") with an image of a crab holding a cigarette and "What I see is not sky, it is loneliness" (哥看的不是天空,是寂寞) with an image of a panda sitting on a tree and looking afar in the distance.
The image of the lonely panda was particularly well received on MOP forums[7], accruing over 1000 replies and many derivative images. The threads were subsequently picked up by various Chinese and English news blogs from CN6[8] and Sina[11] to Pomoho[9] and Chinese culture blog China Smack.[3]
The Loneliness Party (寂寞党)
Eventually, the popularity of such phrases on big Chinese forums led to the formation of the Loneliness Party (寂寞党) or alternatively, The Loneliness Religion (寂寞教), among Chinese internet users who identified with the self-deprecating humor behind the catchphrase. As the membership of the faux political party continued to grow, some took the opposite side by calling themselves the Anti-Loneliness Party and telling others to have a sense of self-respect. However, the anti-Loneliness movement only led to yet another parody of the phrase "what the Anti-Loneliness Party gives is not self-respect, it is loneliness."
Search Interest
External References
[2] End of the World Forum – 娱乐八卦』 [八卦江湖]哥发的不是贴,是寂寞……寂寞党速度进
[3] China Smack – What Is Written Here Is Not The Title, But Loneliness
[4] MOP Forum – 原创】哥玩的不是劲舞团,是寂寞 (July 7, 2009)
[5] Facebook – Happy Farm
[7] MOP Forum – 转发收藏使用道具字体大小只看楼主
寂寞PS召集:史上最寂寞的熊猫
[8] CN 6 – 网络流行《寂寞党之歌》
[9] Pomoho – 视频:网络寂寞党恶搞《三枪拍案惊奇》
[10] Bandao Blog – 史上最寂寞的熊猫图片火拼PS“史上最寂寞的熊猫”国宝坐桩
[11] Sina – 灌水贴:寂寞教流行,n种造句教你怎么玩寂寞
Comments ( 11 )
Awesome work. You are credit to the asian community of KYM.
Nice one! Kenyatta first brought this one up about this time last year when he sent me this article on Chinasmack: http://www.chinasmack.com/2009/stories/loneliness-chinese-internet-meme.html
But we ended up getting sidetracked with the Korean Solo Regiment. https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/the-solo-regiment
I wonder if the two memes grew separately, if one grew from the other, or if they're some part of a larger meme?
okay, seriously. What is with you and these Chinese memes?
@Chris Menning
All the sources I found seem to point to this meme starting in 2009…
It’s hard to ignore that year disparity (Solo Regiment seems to have started at least 2-3 years earlier), which implies they grew separately.
But maybe they inspired each other and caused each other to grow in the long run… I’ll look into it.
@Adam Deland
Maybe it's because I'm half Chinese? :3
awesomeness. glad to see this one back on trail. I think this might be a larger cultural trait shared in East Asia, in this case, self-deprecation of bachelor life as a popular trope.
i too think these two are unrelated in development. friggin hilarious!
Nice meme, quite exploitable…
…even if it's pretty EMO !
I am creating a, "不要迷恋哥,哥只是个传说" entry. After that is made, I will return to research this one.
Another one in? Jesus Christ you're on a roll!
哥吃的不是面,是寂寞
Means~
哥 = Brother
吃 = Eat/eating
的 = The
不 = Not
是 = Is
面 = Noodle
是 = Is
寂寞 = Loneliness
I know I'm late to the party here, but I just read this in detail now. Could you clarify if the usage of this is intended to express genuine loneliness or if it is used in a joking way? It is hard to tell from your writeup if the people using this are doing it as a big joke or not.
Forever apanda.
Sorry, but you must activate your account to post a comment.