81st World Science Fiction Convention

2023 Chengdu, the 81st World Science Fiction Convention 2023成都世界科幻大会
2023 Chengdu Worldcon logo
Status	Finished
Genre	Science fiction
Dates	18–22 October 2023
Location(s)	Chengdu, Sichuan
Country	China
Previous event	Chicon 8
Next event	Glasgow 2024
Website	en.chengduworldcon.com

The 81st World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon), also known as 2023 Chengdu Worldcon, was held on 18–22 October 2023 in Chengdu, Sichuan, China.^[1][2] The co-chairs were Chen Shi, Ben Yalow, and Hongwei He.^[3]

Some fans and authors criticized the location due to human rights in China,^[4] and over 100 authors wrote an open letter asking for the convention to be moved.^[5] After the convention, some American websites commented that a number of Hugo Award ballots were rejected,^[6] and that the administrators excluded some nominees from the awards process for political reasons.^[7]

Participants

Guests of Honor

• Cixin Liu (writer)
• Sergey Lukianenko (writer)
• Robert J. Sawyer (writer)

Awards

Main article: Hugo Award

The World Science Fiction Society administers and presents the Hugo Awards,^[8] the oldest and most noteworthy award for science fiction. Selection of the recipients is by vote of the Worldcon members. Categories include novels and short fiction, artwork, dramatic presentations, and various professional and fandom activities.^[8][9]

Other awards may be presented at Worldcon at the discretion of the individual convention committee. This has often included the national SF awards of the host country, such as the Japanese Seiun Awards as part of Nippon 2007,^[10] and the Prix Aurora Awards as part of Anticipation in 2009. The Astounding Award for Best New Writer and the Sidewise Award, though not sponsored by the Worldcon, are usually presented, as well as the Chesley Awards, the Prometheus Award, and others.^[10]

The winners were:

Category	Winner[11]	Notes
Best Novel	Nettle & Bone, by T. Kingfisher
Best Novella	Where the Drowned Girls Go, by Seanan McGuire
Best Novelette	"The Space-Time Painter", by Hai Ya
Best Short Story	"Rabbit Test", by Samantha Mills	The author disavowed the win due to the ballot controversy.[12]
Best Series	Children of Time series, by Adrian Tchaikovsky	The author disavowed the win due to the ballot controversy.[13]
Best Graphic Story	Cyberpunk 2077: Big City Dreams, by Bartosz Sztybor, Filipe Andrade, Alessio Fioriniello, Roman Titov, Krzysztof Ostrowski
Best Related Work	Terry Pratchett: A Life With Footnotes, by Rob Wilkins
Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form	Everything Everywhere All at Once, written by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, directed by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Sheinert
Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form	The Expanse: "Babylon’s Ashes", written by Daniel Abraham, Ty Franck, Naren Shankar, directed by Breck Eisner
Best Professional Editor, Short Form	Neil Clarke
Best Professional Editor, Long Form	Lindsey Hall
Best Professional Artist	Enzhe Zhao
Best Semiprozine	Uncanny Magazine
Best Fanzine	Zero Gravity Newspaper, by RiverFlow and Ling Shizhen
Best Fancast	Hugo, Girl!, by Haley Zapal, Amy Salley, Lori Anderson, and Kevin Anderson
Best Fan Writer	Chris M. Barkley
Best Fan Artist	Richard Man
Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book	Akata Woman, by Nnedi Okorafor	Not a Hugo Award; presented by the World Science Fiction Society
Astounding Award for Best New Writer	Travis Baldree	Not a Hugo Award; presented by Dell Magazines

Site selection

The following committees announced bids for hosting the convention:^[14]

• Chengdu 2023^[15]
• Memphis in 2023^[16] (withdrawn in October 2021)^[17]
• Nice 2023^[18] (withdrawn in July 2020)^[19]
• Winnipeg in 2023^[20]

The site was selected by members of the 79th World Science Fiction Convention.^[21] After Chengdu was selected, the organizers of the Winnipeg, Canada bid pivoted to bid for the 2023 North American Science Fiction Convention, at which they were successful.^[22]

Controversies

Site controversy

See also: Worldcon § Site selection

In an article on the Esquire magazine, Jason Sanford, a three-time Hugo finalist, said that “There were concerns that a couple thousand people from China purchased memberships [in the World Science Fiction Society] that year to vote for Chengdu. It was unusual, but it was done under the rules.”^[23]

More than 100 authors, including Hugo winners and Uyghur writers, signed an open letter in March 2022 calling for the hosting to be reconsidered due to ongoing human rights violations in the Uyghur region.^[5] The choice of location was criticized due to the possible effects of the Chinese government's censorship regime and the exclusion of authors publicly critical of human rights in China.^[4]

Hugo controversy

The voting statistics for the Hugo Awards, Lodestar Award, and Astounding Award were published on January 20, 2024,^[24] much later than usual.^[23] Questions quickly arose amongst authors surrounding several works that had been marked as ineligible without justification, such as author Xiran Jay Zhao, The Sandman episode 6, "The Sound of Her Wings", and Babel by R. F. Kuang, which had been favored to win.^[4][25][26] Further scrutiny has been leveled towards possible inconsistencies or anomalies in the statistics themselves.^{[25][27][better source needed]}

Commenters on the Facebook page where the statistics were released asked Dave McCarty, a veteran of the awards committee, to explain why the four works were found ineligible. He said that he could not share exactly why but pointed them to the organization's constitution and rules. When commenters were unable to find a rule or constitutional provision that sufficed, the exchanges grew heated, with McCarty sometimes questioning or disparaging the intellectual capacity of his interlocutors, behavior he later apologized for.^[23][26] Emails leaked by Hugo committee member Diane Lacey, acting as a whistleblower indicated that these works had been excluded due to self-censorship by the Hugo Award administrators in order to appease the Chinese government, which has a strict censorship regime.^{[28][29][7][30]} Additionally, an unknown number of nomination ballots from Chinese voters were rejected because the award administrators considered them to be too similar to a recommendations list published by Science Fiction World, and thus equivalent to a slate. Locus wrote that this occurred even though "there is no provision in the WSFS constitution to remove slates from the ballot".^[6]

Based on complaints about the 2023 Hugo award process and official statements made about those complaints, Worldcon Intellectual Property (WIP), the non-profit organization that holds the service marks for the World Science Fiction Society, censured McCarty and two individuals who presided over the Hugo Administration Committee of the Chengdu Worldcon. WIP also reprimanded the chair of the WIP board of directors. Both the director of WIP and chair of the WIP board of directors resigned.^[31][32][7]

In February 2024, as a result of the controversy, Esther MacCallum-Stewart, chair of the 2024 Worldcon, to be held in Glasgow, announced the following commitments for the 2024 Hugo Awards: the reasons for any disqualifications of potential finalists will be published no later than April 2024; the full voting results, nominating statistics and voting statistics will be published immediately following the awards ceremony on 11 August 2024; and immediately following the awards ceremony on 11 August 2024, the Hugo administration subcommittee will publish a log explaining any decisions that they have made in interpreting the WSFS Constitution.^[33][34][35]

See also

• Hugo Award
• Science fiction
• Speculative fiction
• World Science Fiction Society
• Worldcon

References

1. "Chengdu Wins the Bid to Host 81st World Science Fiction Convention (2023 Worldcon)". WFMZ.com. 20 December 2021. Archived from the original on 21 December 2021. Retrieved 26 December 2021.
2. Mike Glyer (19 January 2021). "Chengdu Worldcon Changes Dates to October 2023". File 770. Archived from the original on 20 January 2023. Retrieved 19 January 2021.
3. "Committee and Staff". 2023 Chengdu Worldcon. Retrieved 24 September 2024.
4. Hawkins, Amy (24 January 2024). "Science fiction awards held in China under fire for excluding authors". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on 24 January 2024. Retrieved 25 January 2024.
5. Brown, Lauren (14 March 2022). "Authors come out against China as 2023 WorldCon host". The Bookseller. Archived from the original on 14 March 2022. Retrieved 10 August 2023.
6. "Hugo Awards Tampering Expanded". Locus Online. 5 March 2024. Archived from the original on 6 March 2024. Retrieved 8 March 2024.
7. Alter, Alexandra (17 February 2024). "Some Authors Were Left Out of Awards Held in China. Leaked Emails Show Why". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 17 February 2024. Retrieved 17 February 2024.
8. "Article 3: Hugo Awards". WSFS Constitution. World Science Fiction Society. 2008. Archived from the original on 20 May 2011. Retrieved 5 April 2009.
9. Franklin, Jon (30 October 1977). "Star roars: this year's champs in science fiction". The Baltimore Sun. Baltimore, MD. p. D5. Archived from the original on 8 March 2013. Retrieved 3 March 2011.
10. "Awards". Nippon2007: 65th World Science Fiction Convention. Archived from the original on 2 August 2018. Retrieved 15 March 2009.
11. "The 2023 Hugo Award Winners Are Here". Gizmodo. 24 October 2023. Archived from the original on 24 October 2023. Retrieved 21 February 2024.
12. ""Rabbit Test" unwins the Hugo". SAMANTHA MILLS. 18 February 2024. Archived from the original on 18 February 2024. Retrieved 18 February 2024.
13. Tchaikovsky, Adrian. "A Statement on the 2023 Hugo Awards". adriantchaikovsky.com. Archived from the original on 21 February 2024. Retrieved 21 February 2024.
14. "Worldcon Bids". Worldcon. World Science Fiction Society. 15 May 2016. Archived from the original on 23 August 2018. Retrieved 3 February 2020.
15. "Chengdu 2023". Archived from the original on 23 December 2021. Retrieved 28 February 2023.
16. "Memphis in 2023". Archived from the original on 3 February 2020. Retrieved 3 February 2020.
17. Mike Glyer (18 October 2021). "Memphis In 2023 Worldcon Bid Has Folded". File 770. Archived from the original on 16 December 2021. Retrieved 26 December 2021.
18. "Nice 2023". Archived from the original on 3 February 2020. Retrieved 21 February 2020.
19. Mike Glyer (25 July 2020). "Nice in 2023 Worldcon Bid Folds". File 770. Archived from the original on 8 December 2021. Retrieved 26 December 2021.
20. "Winnipeg in 2023". Archived from the original on 14 June 2021. Retrieved 14 June 2021.
21. "About Bidding". World Science Fiction Society. 15 May 2016. Archived from the original on 29 September 2023. Retrieved 3 February 2020.
22. locusmag (7 September 2022). "NASFiC 2023 Site Selection". Locus Online. Retrieved 21 September 2024.
23. Morgan, Adam (27 January 2024). "Inside the Censorship Scandal That Rocked Sci-Fi and Fantasy's Biggest Awards". Esquire. Archived from the original on 4 February 2024. Retrieved 4 February 2024.
24. Standlee, Kevin (20 January 2024). "2023 Nominating and Final Ballot Statistics Published". The Hugo Awards. Archived from the original on 21 January 2024. Retrieved 22 January 2024.
25. Moher, Aidan (20 January 2024). "Astrolabe 36: Panic! At The Hugos". Archived from the original on 21 January 2024. Retrieved 22 January 2024.
26. Gennis, Sadie; Polo, Susana (24 January 2024). "Hugo Awards under fire over censorship accusations, and SFF writers want answers". Polygon. Archived from the original on 25 January 2024. Retrieved 25 January 2024.
27. Jones, Heather. "A Comparison of Hugo Nomination Distribution Statistics". Archived from the original on 22 January 2024. Retrieved 22 January 2024.
28. Cole, Samantha (15 February 2024). "Leaked Emails Show Hugo Awards Self-Censoring to Appease China". 404 Media. Archived from the original on 15 February 2024. Retrieved 16 February 2024.
29. Hawkins, Amy (15 February 2024). "Authors 'excluded from Hugo awards over China concerns'". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on 16 February 2024. Retrieved 17 February 2024.
30. Chris M. Barkley, Jason Sanford (14 February 2024). "The 2023 Hugo Awards: A Report on Censorship and Exclusion". File 770. Archived from the original on 1 March 2024. Retrieved 2 March 2024.
31. "McCarty, Standlee, and Others Censured or Reprimanded". Locus Online. 31 January 2024. Archived from the original on 31 January 2024. Retrieved 1 February 2024.
32. Stewart, Sophia (1 February 2024). "Resignations, Censures Follow in Wake of Hugo Awards Controversy". Publishers Weekly. Archived from the original on 3 February 2024. Retrieved 17 February 2024.
33. "Glasgow 2024 Hugo Awards Statement". Glasgow 2024 Worldcon. 15 February 2024. Archived from the original on 15 February 2024. Retrieved 16 February 2024.
34. Stewart, Sophia (16 February 2024). "Glasgow Worldcon Chair Vows Transparency Following Chengdu Hugos Censorship". Publishers Weekly. Archived from the original on 17 February 2024. Retrieved 17 February 2024.
35. "Glasgow Worldcon Apologizes for 'Damage' Caused by 2023 Hugo Awards Controversy". Gizmodo. 15 February 2024. Archived from the original on 16 February 2024. Retrieved 17 February 2024.

External links

• Worldcon official website
• Convention official website
• List of current Worldcon bids
• Mike Glyer (20 February 2023). "Chengdu Worldcon Distributes First Progress Report". File 770. Retrieved 28 February 2023.

Preceded by 80th World Science Fiction Convention Chicon 8 in Chicago, Illinois, United States (2022)

List of Worldcons 81st World Science Fiction Convention in Chengdu, China (2023)

Succeeded by 82nd World Science Fiction Convention Glasgow 2024 in Glasgow, UK (2024)