Yet another controversy plaguing the scandal-wracked World Science Fiction Society refuses to die as credible allegations of censorship, and a subsequent cover up, swirl in the wake of 2023’s World Con in Chengdu.
The home of oldpub’s once-prestigious Hugo Awards, World Con made its Chinese debut last year in a futuristic facility built just for the occasion.
The event proved a stellar venue for big business, with over 1 billion dollars in new entertainment deals conducted at the convention. Many of these science fiction-related enterprises center around China’s burgeoning film, publishing, and video game industries.
But according to reports attested by World Con members and some administrators, that massive financial windfall may have involved a Faustian bargain with Chinese government censors.
The New York Times bestseller Babel by RF Kuang, an episode of the Netflix drama The Sandman and the author Xiran Jay Zhao were among the works and authors excluded from the 2023 Hugo awards, which were administered by the World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon) in Chengdu in October.
No reason was given for the exclusions, which were revealed only on 20 January when the Hugo awards published the full nomination statistics for last year’s prize. Certain titles were listed as having been given votes, but were marked with an asterisk and the words “not eligible”, with no further details given.
Recently released documents showed that several works or authors – some with links to China – had been excluded from the ballot despite receiving enough nominations to be included on their respective shortlists. The excluded nominees include Kuang and Zhao, authors who were born in China but are now based in the west.
Concerns have been raised that the authors were targeted for political reasons, connected to the fact that the ruling Chinese Communist party exerts a tight control on all cultural events that take place inside its borders.
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Dave McCarty, the head of the 2023 Hugo awards jury, wrote on Facebook: “Nobody has ordered me to do anything … There was no communication between the Hugo administration team and the Chinese government in any official manner.”
McCarty did not respond to a request from the Guardian for comment, but shared what he said was the official response from the awards administration team on Facebook: “After reviewing the constitution and the rules we must follow, the administration team determined those works/persons were not eligible.” He declined to elaborate on what the rules were.
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Reports now say that McCarty has resigned in the scandal’s fallout. Too late to prevent the alleged censorship from canceling another World Con stalwart.
Episode six of The Sandman, which is based on a comic book written by Neil Gaiman, was excluded from the best dramatic presentation category, despite receiving enough nominations to be on the final ballot. Gaiman has publicly criticised the Chinese authorities for imprisoning writers.
Another well-established pattern of behavior from Chinese censors may point to an added reason why The Sandman was canceled by China.
Derived from the iconic comic series of the same name, The Sandman features seven godlike siblings, each of whom embodies a primordial idea. The Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity-based decision to cast the beloved character Death, originally inspired by Pretenders frontwoman Chrissie Hynde, with an actress of African descent, may have violated CCP television guidelines.
Sandman writer Neil Gaiman, whose previous work Sandman: Overture won a Hugo in 2016 thanks in part to the Sad Puppies campaign, wasn’t tight-lipped about his feelings toward that controversy.
It meant a lot to see Sandman: Overture nominated for a Hugo Award and was disappointing to see that it had been dragged into the unfortunate mess that the pitiable people who call themselves Puppies had attempted to inflict on World Con and its awards. I would have withdrawn it from consideration, but even that seemed like it would have been giving these sad losers too much acknowledgment.
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In a recent exchange with fellow Hugo winner John Scalzi on Blue Sky, an alternative to Elon Musk-owned X, Gaiman disagreed that the Sad Puppies campaign was a worse threat to World Con and alluded to the China scandal as far more damaging.
Puppies was not as bad (from my pov) because there was a robust community response. Antibodies were deployed. With this one it feels like the rot is in the system. Lies and silence do nobody any favours.
It’s unknown as of this writing if the beleaguered World Con can survive its billi0n-dollar entanglements with Chinese business and government interests as an independent entity.
What readers can be assured of is that the twin revolutions of newpub and Neopatronage put them – not any government or ideology – in control of their entertainment.
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