The Great Wall of China hoax was a faked story, published in United States newspapers on June 25, 1899, about bids by American businesses to demolish the Great Wall of China and construct a road in its place.
In 1939, an urban legend began when Denver songwriter Harry Lee Wilber claimed in a magazine article that the 1899 hoax had ignited the Boxer Rebellion of 1900. Paul Harvey and Dwight Sands perpetuated the legend. Variations have been incorporated into sermons about "the power of the tongue," a morality tale used by preachers to highlight the consequences of lying.
The fact, however, is that Boxer activity intensified in response to the German invasion in Shandong during March 1899 - before the hoax was invented in Denver. No Chinese history reference relates the hoax to the Boxer Rebellion.
Read more about Great Wall Of China Hoax: Origin, Harry Lee Wilber
Famous quotes containing the words wall and/or china:
“Whoever digs a pit will fall into it; and whoever breaks through a wall will be bitten by a snake.”
—Bible: Hebrew, Ecclesiastes 10:8.
“Riot in Algeria, in Cyprus, in Alabama;
Aged in wrong, the empires are declining,
And China gathers, soundlessly, like evidence.
What shall I say to the young on such a morning?—
Mind is the one salvation?—also grammar?—
No; my little ones lean not toward revolt.”
—William Dewitt Snodgrass (b. 1926)