A faux Elon Musk angered and dissatisfied dozens of Chinese language followers who confirmed up at a New York occasion wanting to fulfill the actual deal

• Attendees of an occasion in New York have been left dissatisfied after a faux Elon Musk confirmed up.
• Individuals have been seen flocking to the faux Musk and taking photographs with him.
• It wasn’t till after the occasion that folks realized they hadn’t really met Musk.

A bunch of Chinese language Elon Musk followers thought they might meet him at an occasion in New York. They have been massively dissatisfied when a Musk impersonator confirmed up as an alternative.

The occasion’s organizer, Gary Kong, had promised that the Twitter and Tesla CEO can be on the launch occasion for Kong’s new publication, the Wall St Journal, per a report by the South China Morning Submit. Kong is the president of the Sino-American Commerce Affiliation, a non-profit group in Flushing, New York.

Over 120 Chinese language followers of the tech mogul headed all the way down to The James Lodge in Manhattan on April 27 at 7 p.m. to catch a glimpse of Musk, per Chinese language media outlet The Paper. They waited for greater than an hour and a half earlier than a person who solely barely resembled Musk confirmed up.

—South China Morning Submit (@SCMPNews) May 8, 2023

The Paper reported that the person was surrounded by a number of bodyguards when he arrived. He then posed for a number of photographs and took part in an awards ceremony earlier than leaving rapidly.

In response to The Paper, individuals solely realized after the occasion that the person’s voice and look didn’t match Musk’s.

Gao Weiwei, who attended the occasion in New York and took a photograph with the faux Musk, posted a video concerning the occasion on the Chinese language social media website Weibo.

“By no means in our wildest desires did we expect it was a faux Musk,” Gao stated.

“After I noticed him in individual, I believed: ‘Hey, that does not appear to be Musk,'” Gao added. “I simply thought that possibly he appears to be like just a little totally different in actual life.” 

Gao additionally posted a video of herself and different occasion attendees posing with the faux Musk — who was being shepherded into the occasion corridor, by way of a dense crowd of individuals snapping photographs and taking movies. The video has been seen greater than 33,000 instances as of press time.

Talking to the SCMP, Kong stated he had by no means promised that Musk would attend the occasion. Kong additionally informed the SCMP that the wording on the occasion’s press launch advised that Musk would simply be on the duvet of the journal and never on the occasion itself.

Nonetheless, The Paper printed what seemed to be a replica of the invitation to the occasion. The invitation learn: “The primary committee has invited many entrepreneurs, & Elon Musk. Mr. Elon Musk is the CEO and CTO of Area Exploration Expertise (SpaceX), CEO of Tesla (TESLA), and the chairman of the board of administrators of SolarCity.”

Insider was additionally unable to instantly confirm the id of the Musk impersonator.

Kong’s representatives on the Sino-American Commerce Affiliation didn’t instantly reply to Insider’s request for remark despatched outdoors common enterprise hours. Musk and Gao additionally didn’t instantly reply to Insider’s requests for remark.