A Chinese housewife has spent years writing fake Wikipedia articles without anyone noticing. It took a writer to take an interest in his writings for the veil to be lifted on the extent of his work: in total, more than 300 interconnected articles have remained on the site for years, creating in the process a complete fictional universe.
Last month, Chinese novelist Yifan took to Wikipedia with a very specific goal in mind. In order to document himself for his next book, he seeks to learn more about the Kashin mine. He then came across an article telling him that the mine had been discovered by Russian farmers in 1344, resulting in the forced labor of more than 40,000 slaves. The list of information continues like this, without, at first sight, any anomaly to report.
Very interested in the subject, Yifan then decided to deepen his research by diversifying his sources. But as he finds out more about it, he realizes something is wrong. Information found on Wikipedia cannot be found anywhere else. On closer inspection, all of the articles written by the author of the Kashin mine page seem to be wrong.
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She creates an entire fictional universe on Wikipedia because she’s bored
Yifan does not know it yet, but he has just got his hands on the work of Zhemao, the pseudonym of a Chinese housewife. Since 2019, she has written no less than 206 articles and participated in a total of 300 writings. Problem: These are all entirely bogus. Despite the very academic tone and the many sources provided, all the information included in these articles comes from his imagination.
However, this “scam” went unnoticed for several years. Some of his articles have even been translated into other languages as their quality has been highlighted by many contributors. “The content she wrote is of high quality and the entries were interconnected, creating a system that can exist on its own,” explains the emeritus contributor John Yip.
To maintain the illusion, Zhemao regularly uses the same source: “History of Russia” by historian Sergei M. Solovyov, a huge 29-volume book – which is therefore very difficult to browse to verify the information in the articles. . To gain credibility, Zhemao even created other accounts to support him through various glowing comments.
After being exposed, Zhemao was finally banned for life from the site and her articles were deleted. An incredible story that reminds us not to believe everything we find on Wikipedia.
Source: Vice