Decade-long prank revealed
Fake historical accounts of Russian history was unearthed on Chinese social media
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This is about one of the biggest hoaxes in Wikipedia's history which has recently been uncovered in China.
A writer who goes by the name of 折毛 zhé máo has spent the last 10 years creating fictitious detailed historical accounts of parts of Russian history, publishing them in Chinese on Chinese Wikipedia 维基百科 wéi jī bǎi kē.
Many of the places she writes about are completely made up, while other stories are linked to and interwoven with reality.
The fakes were uncovered by a netizen who realized that the Chinese entries were different to their English equivalents:
It all started when I found an article about a silver mine in Kashen as part of the research for the novel I was writing. When I first found it I thought I’d found a treasure trove of information. But after a while I realised there was a problem. I checked with some experts and they discovered that the silver mine probably didn’t exist. After searching more online and asking Russian students, they knew to research in Russian, but they found nothing. There was no silver mine of that scale in Kashen. This is how it all started.
After Zhe Mao was exposed, one Chinese media outlet commented:
有人说，历史是由胜利者书写的，但在维基百科的古罗斯史相关的词条这里，历史，却是由中国一个高中肄业，俄语英语全都不会的网友胡写的。
Some people say that history is written by the victors. But entries about ancient Russian history on Wikipedia are fabricated by a netizen who has not graduated from high school and can’t even speak Russian or English.
On social media, netizens have mixed options. Some comments were about how Zhe Mao should start a career as a novelist:
一个高中生造出来一个古历史，不佩服都不行。有这个能力，去编写小说多好
It’s difficult not admire a high school student who is able to invent this history. With this ability she should write a novel.
While others were less impressed:
这也太坑人了，不知道有多少研究这方面历史的遭了殃啊
This has had a really bad effect - how many people who research Russian history have been caught out by this?
So this week we explore commentary online about Zhe Mao and her creative abilities with lots of vocab about truth, deception and lies.
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The Favourite Five
1. 坑爹 kēng diē
annoying
这个历史发明家和她干的这些坑爹事儿终于在偶然之间被扒出来了 - The inventor of Russian history and the annoying things she does have finally been uncovered, albeit by accident.
More: this is originally from the northern Jiangsu dialect, but was made famous in the gaming world. Read SupChina phrase of the week for more.
Related: 被坑 or 坑了 to be deceived which we discussed previously in October last year.
2. 毛子 máo zi
the hairy Russians
目前自己也已更换国籍成了俄罗斯人，从生下来几乎就和毛子绑定 - She has changed her nationality so she is now Russian. It’s as if she was connected with Russians since she was born.
Note: ‘hairy’ is a slang term for Russians which first appeared during the late Qing dynasty in northern and north eastern China. At that time Russians were foreign invaders so this was a derogatory term. Modern variations include Ukrainians (二毛 èr máo) and Belarussians (白毛 bái máo).
3. 长心眼 zhǎng xīn yǎn
‘grow heart eye’; to be extra careful or take precautions
我当时长了个心眼给群友看了看，然后就发现了问题 - At the time I double-checked with colleagues in the social media group, and then found the problem.
Note: used in situations when an error has cost you something and you won’t let it happen again.
4. 捧臭脚 pěng chòu jiǎo
lifting stinky feet; suck up to somebody
无一例外都对历史表现出浓厚的兴趣，甚至演起互相认识捧臭脚的戏码 - All of the accounts she set up showed a deep interest in history. They even pretenteded to be friends with and suck up to each other.
Note: Internet slang word which means to suck up to someone even though you know they are wrong (ie they have stinky feet).
5. 一个谎言需要用一百个谎言去圆 yī ge huǎng yán xū yào yòng yī bǎi ge huǎng yán qù yuán
it takes one hundred lies to cover up a single untruth
一个谎言总要由另一个谎言去圆，或许这就是折毛修改历史百科一发不可收拾的原因吧 - Lying begets more lying. Perhaps this was the reason why Zhe Mao kept re-writing history.
Note: 圆 yuán is a verb here which means to make perfect, or justify.
Consuming the conversation
Useful words
瞎编 xiā biān
blindly make something up
中国网友瞎编了维基百科上的俄罗斯历史，10年了才刚被发现 - A Chinese netizen has made up Russian history on Wikipedia, only to be discovered after 10 years.
离谱 lí pǔ
outrageous
昨晚吃了一个离谱的瓜，一个人花了六年编了几乎整个中文的古俄史维基百科 - I saw an outrageous piece of news last night: someone has made up an entire history of Russian in Chinese over the last six years.
Note: 吃瓜 chī guā - ‘eat melon’ to watch a situation or news story unfold
无语 wú yǔ
speechless
200页的书被折毛从265页引用出资料这种无语事件发生 - Zhe Mao has taken information from p265 of a 200-page book. It’s ridiculous.
Note: first discussed on 2 October newsletter last year.
遭殃 zāo yāng
suffer
这也太坑人了，不知道有多少研究这方面历史的遭了殃啊 - This has had a really bad effect - how many people who research Russian history have been caught out by this?
白眼 bái yǎn
‘white eye’; to roll your eyes at somebody
胡编乱造很可能就会被查阅历史百科后回来的裁判一顿白眼 - It’s very likely that someone who has done proper research will roll their eyes at such blatant fabrication.
Note: normally used with the verb 翻 fān - in English you roll your eyes, in Chinese you flip them.
篡改 cuàn gǎi
falsify; tamper with
如果她这些年真能把篡改历史的拼劲儿用在写小说上，可能早就成架空世界观的大佬了吧 - If she put the same effort into writing novels as she had in tampering with history, she may have been extremely successful at creating a parallel universe.
Note: 拼劲儿 pīn jìn er - effort, energy
拆穿 chāi chuān
expose, uncover
她眼看自己的大作被网友们拆穿 - She watched how her great works have been exposed by netizens.
Note: this tends to be a more written or literary word and tends to be used in relation to uncovering lies (谎言 huǎng yán).
Three-character phrases
争个够 zhēng ge gòu
compete intensely
就为了那不存在的卡申银矿，兵家必争之地嘛，那折毛就让你们争个够 - Since the nonexistent silver mine in Kashen was a key battleground, Zhe Mao made up many wars that took place there.
Note: X个够 is common contraction used in spoken Chinese. For example, 喝个够 - drink a skin-full, 吃个够 eat as much as you can.
咬舌头 yǎo shé tou
bite your tongue; a mouth full
几十个念起来都咬舌头的名字 - Quite a few of the names are hard to pronounce.
Note: this can also mean dishonest in Chinese:
我说话不会咬舌头 - I do not tell lies.
肄业生 yì yè shēng
someone who has not graduated
她并不会俄语和英语，只是中国出生的一名普通高中肄业生 - She can’t even speak Russian or English. She’s just a normal Chinese student who did not even graduate high school.
Note: this normally refers to someone who has been expelled from university or school.
Idioms
胡编乱造 hú biān luàn zào
make something up
一个人在胡编乱造方面笔耕不辍 - She keeps relentlessly making up historical events.
Note: this is one of those idioms where you can work the meaning out, in a verb-noun verb-noun construction. It appeared in all the coverage of this story in the Chines media.
More: 笔耕不辍 bǐ gēng bù chuò - pen of an author is working tirelessly. This is different to 奋笔疾书 fèn bǐ jí shū - writing energetically - which normally refers to students in exams.
日日夜夜 rì rì yè yè
night and day
二百多个词条，上百万的文字，上千个日日夜夜，这得是何等的毅力 - With over 200 entries, millions of words, thousands of days and nights, what kind of perseverance does it take to do this?
Note: normally refers to working night and day.
蛛丝马迹 zhū sī mǎ jì
spider web, horse tracks; clues
凶手总会留下蛛丝马迹 - A criminal always leaves clues.
More: first discussed in 1 May 2021 newsletter.
虚无缥缈 xū wú piāo miǎo
vague, unreal
自己也面临生产，声称不会再去做这些虚无缥缈的事情了 - She is also facing the fact that she’ll have a baby soon. She said she will no longer write these fake stories.
Note: from a line of a well-known poem by Bái Jūyì 白居易 (772–846), a renowned poet and Tang dynasty. The poem is called Song of Everlasting Sorrow (长恨歌 cháng hèn gē), inspired by a love affair of the emperor Xuanzong of Tang (唐玄宗 táng xuán zōng).
Phrases
气死人不偿命 qì sǐ rén bù cháng mìng
make someone so angry
网友们有人觉得她的做法属实不妥，坑死人不偿命 - Netizens believe her behaviour is completely inappropriate. It’s so deceptive.
Note: there are other phrases like:
甜死不偿命 tián sǐ bù cháng mìng - so charming (literally way too sweet)
笑死不偿命 xiào sǐ bù cháng mìng - so funny
一发不可收拾 yī fā bù kě shōu shi
out of control
一个谎言总要由另一个谎言去圆，或许这就是折毛修改历史百科一发不可收拾的原因吧 - Lying begets more lying. Perhaps this was the reason why Zhe Mao kept re-writing history.
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