Loneliness Party (寂寞党)

About

What I am smoking is not cigarettes, IT IS LONELINESS

The Loneliness Party refers to a group of people on Chinese forums who openly express their loneliness. This is similar in theme to the Korean Solo Regiment meme.

The party arose as a result of an exploitable phrasal template, What X is Y’ing is not Z, It is Loneliness (Chinese: XY的不是Z，是寂寞; Pinyin: X Y de bù shì Z, shì jì mò) that became popular in the same year. It is used both humorously and seriously to a variety of situations.

Example: It is not air that I am breathing, IT IS LONELINESS.

Origin

“What X is Y’ing is not Z, It is Loneliness” comes from a low resolution picture from Baidu Tieba in July 2009:

What I am Eating is not Noodles, it is Loneliness!
(Chinese: 哥吃的不是面，是寂寞; Pinyin: Gē chī de bù shì miàn, shì jì mò)

Which was probably inspired by the Don’t obsess over me, I’m only a legend phenomenon popular earlier that year.

One of the most popular variations of the phrase is: 哥抽的不是烟，是寂寞 (Pinyin: Gē chōu de bùshì yān shì jìmò), which means “What I am smoking is not cigarettes, it is loneliness.”

Eventually, the popularity of such phrases on big Chinese forums led to the Loneliness Party’s formation.

Spread:

Usage on the End of the World forums (天涯社区发帖)
Usage in World of Warcraft, where players expressed their loneliness.
Usage in Chinese articles (as titles)
On November 2009, the Chinese version of Happy Farm had “It is not a kind of radish, it is loneliness” as a setting

Insights

In the following Google Insights chart: red is “What I am eating is not noodles, it is loneliness,” yellow is “X is not Y, it is loneliness,” green is “loneliness party,” and blue is “What I am smoking is not cigarettes, it is loneliness.”

The Loneliness Party (寂寞党)

“The Loneliness Party” (寂寞党), also known as “The Loneliness Religion” (寂寞教) (and sometimes translated to “Loneliness Tribe”), is the term used to describe people who use the “It is Loneliness” catchphrase.

With the popularity of the “It is Loneliness” catchphrase, many took the opposite side (calling themselves the Anti-Loneliness Party), telling others to have “self-respect.”

However, this actually increased the popularity of the phrase, with some ironically saying, “What the Anti-Loneliness Party gives is not self-respect, it is loneliness.”