About

You Met Me At A Very Chinese Time In My Life is a catchphrase parodying a line of dialogue spoken by the protagonist in the 1999 movie Fight Club, "You met me at a very strange time in my life." The parody phrase was popularized on social media throughout 2025 as it was increasingly used in memes, many of which share it alongside videos or images related to visiting China, being a Chinese person or doing something stereotypically Chinese. The phrase is ultimately meaningless and purposefully absurd.

Origin

On April 5th, 2025, X^[1] user @girl__virus posted, "you met me at a very chinese time in my life," garnering over 27,000 likes and 3,500 reposts in seven months. This is the earliest known user to write the sentence.

The phrase is a parody of the last line of dialogue spoken in Fight Club, in which the protagonist says to Marla Singer, "You met me at a very strange time in my life."

Spread

The phrase spread over the following months, inspiring a variety of memes on sites including X, Instagram and TikTok.

On July 3rd, 2025, Instagram^[2] user the_soundgeist posted a meme using the phrase, garnering over 5,000 likes in four months.

On September 5th, X^[3] user @jinazugawa posted the phrase over a piece of art, gaining over 1,500 likes in two months.

On October 10th, 2025, TikToker^[4] @mylesmarchant posted a video of himself eating dumplings under the phrase, garnering over 1.2 million views in a month.

On October 14th, TikToker^[5] @gabisupernova posted a similar video of herself eating Chinese food under the phrase, garnering over 504,000 views in a month.

On October 28th, 2025, X^[6] user @isiswolfson responded, "you met me at a very chinese mustard 67 time in my life," to another post sharing a photo of mustard packets from a Chinese restaurant, reading, "The record for most mustard packets taken from a Chinese restaurant is now 67," garnering over 49,000 likes in a week.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References