Hugo awards Science fiction awards held in China under fire for excluding authors [View all]

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https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/jan/24/science-fiction-awards-held-in-china-under-fire-for-excluding-authors

Hugo awards
Science fiction awards held in China under fire for excluding authors

Concerns raised about interference or censorship after documents showed writers were barred despite receiving enough nominations

Amy Hawkins Senior China correspondent
@amyhawk_
Wed 24 Jan 2024 10.53 EST

A prestigious literary award for science fiction, which was hosted in China for the first time, has come under fire for excluding several authors from the 2023 awards, raising concerns about interference or censorship in the awards process.

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.

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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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The Worldcon organisers “should have taken our concerns about the awards being held in China seriously from the beginning. We knew something like this was going to happen,” said Xiran.

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