Did you ever think Wikipedia – the place we all run to for quick answers – could be fooled for over a decade? Well, it was. Grab a cup of coffee (or something stronger) for this wild story about a housewife, fake Russian history, and the longest-running hoax you never knew about.
It all started with someone named Zhemao, who, back in 2010, decided to get a little creative on Wikipedia. But, instead of writing fiction novels or fanfics, she created fake historical events about medieval Russia. We’re talking about elaborate, well-researched (or so it seemed), and detailed articles that fooled even the most seasoned Wikipedia editors. Zhemao was no scholar, though she posed as one. She claimed to have a Ph.D., a Russian diplomat husband, and a whole backstory straight out of a spy novel. And get this – none of it is real.
For over a decade, she crafted over 200 interlinked articles about things like the “Kashin silver mine” and fictitious Slavic battles. She even made maps and wrote about ancient coins. I mean, who goes to that level of detail for a lie, right? But the real question is, why?
People bought it. Even the articles were translated into different languages – Russian, English, and Arabic. Zhemao created sockpuppet accounts to back up her claims, sometimes even talking to herself through different usernames. Yeah, she literally had fake conversations with her own made-up personalities online!
It wasn’t until a curious novelist, Yifan, smelled something fishy. He was doing some research and found that the stories didn’t match up with Russian records. After a bit of digging, he uncovered the entire web of lies. In June 2022, Zhemao came clean, apologizing, explaining she was a lonely housewife with no degree, no fluency in Russian or English, and that her whole Wikipedia project spiraled out of control.
The aftermath? Well, Wikipedia was left red-faced, and Zhemao’s articles were swiftly deleted. But some people couldn’t help but marvel at the level of imagination and detail she put into her work – calling her the “Chinese Borges.”
Even the most massive crowdsourced encyclopedia can be deceived. Makes you wonder – what other things out there might be misleading us?