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HONG KONG – Organizers of the Hugo Awards, one of science fiction’s most prominent literary awards, excluded several authors from shortlists last year over fears that their work or public comments could be offensive to China, emails show. Leaked emails.
Questions had been raised about why writers such as Neil Gaiman, RF Kuang, Xiran Jay Zhao and Paul Weimer had been deemed ineligible as finalists despite receiving enough votes, according to information released last month by awards organisers. Emails released this week revealed they were concerned about how some authors might be perceived in China, where the Hugo Awards were first held last year.
“As this is happening in China and the ‘laws’ we operate under are different… we need to highlight anything of a sensitive political nature in the work,” wrote Dave McCarty, chair of the 2023 awards jury, in an email dated on June 5. .
Any work focused on China, Taiwan, Tibet or other sensitive issues, he added, “should be highlighted so we can determine if it is safe to put on the ballot.”
McCarty, who resigned from his position at the awards last month, did not respond to a request for comment. In a statement on Thursday, organizers of the 2024 Hugo Awards, to be held in Glasgow, said they were taking steps “to ensure transparency and attempt to repair the serious loss of confidence in the administration of the awards”.
Last year’s Hugo Awards, which unlike most literary awards are run by fans, were held in October during the 81st World Science Fiction Convention, known as Worldcon, in the southwestern city of Chengdu from China. Dozens of science fiction and fantasy writers had signed a open letter protesting the venue, which was chosen by voting members of the convention, citing in an open letter allegations of abuses against Uyghurs and other largely Muslim minority groups in China that Beijing denies.
Email messageswhich were first reported by science fiction writers and journalists Chris M. Barkley and Jason Sanford. in science fiction news site Archive 770 and Sanford Patreon AccountThey show awards organizers detailing possible “China negatives” in authors’ published works, book reviews and social media stories.
Some books, such as Kuang’s “Babel,” which won the 2023 British Book Prize for Fiction, appear to have been excluded simply for taking place in China. Zhao’s novel “Iron Widow” was noted as a “reimagining of the rise of Chinese empress Wu Zetian.”
Organizers also noted 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.
“They went through all of my blog posts and all of my reviews like a fine-toothed comb,” Paul Weimer, an American author and three-time Hugo Award nominee who was disqualified, told NBC News in a telephone interview on Friday.
Among the reasons given for excluding Weimer was his alleged previous trip to Tibet, a Chinese region where Beijing is also accused of abuses.
“The funny thing is that I didn’t even go to Tibet. I was in Nepal. They didn’t get the basic facts about me right,” she said.
Weimer, whose display name in X had been changed as of Friday to “Paul ‘Nepal is not Tibet’ Weimer,” said the investigation went against the spirit not only of the Hugo Awards but of science fiction itself.
“Censoring people based on what you think a government wouldn’t like goes completely against the whole science fiction project,” he said.
The emails were released by awards organizer Diane Lacey, who wrote some of the emails and said in a apology letter attached which, in retrospect, I probably should have resigned.
“We were told to vet nominees for jobs focused on China, Taiwan, Tibet or other issues that might be a problem in China, and to my shame, I did,” said Lacey, who did not respond to a request for comment. .
“I’m not that naïve about the Chinese political system, but I wanted the Hugos to happen, not completely crash and burn.”