Science fiction authors were excluded from awards for fear of offending China
Science fiction authors were excluded from awards for fear of offending China
Leaked emails show organizers of the prestigious Hugo Awards vetted writers’ work and comments with regard to China, where last year’s awards were held.
Leaked emails show organizers of the prestigious Hugo Awards vetted writers’ work and comments with regard to China, where last year’s awards were held.
Organizers of the Hugo Awards, one of the most prominent literary awards in science fiction, excluded multiple authors from shortlists last year over concerns their work or public comments could be offensive to China, leaked emails show.
Questions had been raised as to why writers including Neil Gaiman, R.F. Kuang, Xiran Jay Zhao and Paul Weimer had been deemed ineligible as finalists despite earning enough votes according to information published last month by awards organizers. Emails released this week revealed that they were concerned about how some authors might be perceived in China, where the Hugo Awards were held last year for the first time.
Xiran Jay Zhao is posting about this on their Instagram a lot, which gives an insight into this from the POV of a Chinese person.
37Organizers also flagged comments that authors, including Barkley and Sanford, had made about the merits of holding the awards in Chengdu and whether they signed or shared the open letter.
Even if you don’t criticize China explicitly in your works, you are still subject to the Chinese social credit score for everything you say online.
Science fiction is supposed to be about looking to the future in creative ways. Stifling creativity for state interests is repugnant.
31Well, there's going a lot of credibility going poof.
29from the excellent antipope article posted earlier:
A commenter just drew my attention to this news item on China.org.cn, dated October 23rd, 2023, right after the worldcon. It begins:
Investment deals valued at approximately $1.09 billion were signed during the 81st World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon) held in Chengdu, Sichuan province, last week at its inaugural industrial development summit, marking significant progress in the advancement of sci-fi development in China.
The deals included 21 sci-fi industry projects involving companies that produce films, parks, and immersive sci-fi experiences ..."
That's a metric fuckton of moolah in play, and it would totally account for the fan-run convention folks being discreetly elbowed out of the way and the entire event being stage-managed as a backdrop for a major industrial event to bootstrap creative industries (film, TV, and games) in Chengdu. And—looking for the most charitable interpretation here—the hapless western WSFS people being carried along for the ride to provide a veneer of worldcon-ness to what was basically Chinese venture capital hijacking the event and then sanitizing it politically.
Follow the money.
27Since most industries treat their awards ceremonies as no more respectable than industry galas + appointing lists of insider-approved "most notable content" awards, I treat them that way! IE I got back into sci fi this year after a hiatus of many years. I looked over the Hugos from the last ten years to find some interesting titles to get me started. While I wasn't disappointed in the slightest by any of them, I could also tell there's no way these were actually the best of the best sci-fi from the last 10 years.
And, you know, if the people throwing the gala are smart, they'll understand it as an advertising event for the whole industry, so the dog and pony show counts, unfortunately. They can, and many do, shit out lists of recent notable titles put together by editors for advertising purposes, but who checks those? Who cares? But holding an award ceremony with judges, that's something you can get media coverage of. There are pictures to take, controversies to be had, etc. The more unique and interesting it is, and the more credible the dog and pony show, the more excited people get about it.
You can't sustain that angle of an awards ceremony if it's obviously just wheeling and dealing. But since it's all just wheeling and dealing these days, what can you do but throw out the baby with the bathwater? ¯_(ツ)_/¯
19Obviously the organisers didn't want to piss off Winnie the Pooh lest he takes away their honey.
16Fuck the CCP "yeah you know me".
11just another awards show to not take seriously, what else is new. nobody should believe in "credibility" any more.
6
5Book banning, this is what a chilling effect on free speech looks like.
If you ever have any doubts who the fascists are, look at who's banning books in school and elsewhere.
4Even if Science Fiction is more popular now it is still kinda a niche area, so disappointed to get one of the good sources do this
2FUCK THE CHINES GOVERNMENT, WINNIE-THE-POOH LOOKING DICTATOR
1A bit off topic but Rebecca rocks
-5So indirect fear of Chinese reprisals is news, but the West directly censoring an exiled Chinese artist over his criticism of israel is "free speech'.
Exiled Chinese artist Ai Weiwei: 'Censorship in West exactly the same as Mao's China'
-7