Public discussions about loneliness have been sparked by a new trend started by a woman offering to send "goodnight" messages to strangers for 1 yuan ($0.16) per message.
The woman, known only as "Jiumei," started offering the service three years ago, publicizing her service on the Chinese e-commerce site Taobao. She was inspired by her own loneliness after working long hours at her demanding job.
"When I felt so tired at night, I wanted to talk to someone," said Jiumei. However, she did not want to burden her family or find the friends she had already lost contact with.
Jiumei then thought about other lonely people who might need such a service.
Jiumei's first offer on Taobao was posted in Feb. 2012 under the username "woman who sells goodnight." More than 200 people contacted her for messages, either for themselves or for someone else.
Since Jiumei started offering the service, she has sent over 3,000 messages.
Initially, Jiumei only intended to say "goodnight," but over time she has started saying more meaningful messages.
"I'm trying to go to bed earlier, but it may be still quite early for you. Goodnight, someone far away from home," read Jiumei's message to a Chinese worker in Saudi Arabia, who ordered 30 days of daily messages in advance.
There was also a woman who asked for a birthday message after everyone she knew failed to remember her birthday. For this, Jiumei asked her clients and friends on WeChat to greet this woman, who later admitted that she was touched by all the messages she received.
Jiumei stopped offering the service in June after she had opened a coffee shop in Guangzhou that took up all her time and energy. She decided to offer the service again in September after the media reported her story.
Many vendors on Taobao have already copied Jiumei's service.
Some have criticized Jiumei for charging a fee for her service, rejecting people who wanted to join it for free. However, Jiumei has said that there is time and effort that goes into each message, stating that doing 10 a night can already tire a person out.
A lecturer in psychology from Sun Yat-sen University, He Lingnan said that Jiumei's story highlighted the loneliness of people who migrate to cities to find work. He said that migrants often lose their social connections back home, finding it hard to make new relations in the city.
He noted that such services offer cheap solutions for lonely people.