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.

  • @[email protected]
    15•4 months ago

    I was amazed he got away with the first part of the first book which describes aspects of the Cultural Revolution in great detail and doesn’t shy away from the whole teenagers murdering their teachers aspect. He is publically pro-goverment in the way you’d better be as a public figure in China. The books, especially the first one, are good.

    • @[email protected]
      4•4 months ago

      I liked the ideas in the books more than the books itself. as a peice of literature I thought the writing was mediocre at best, characters with the depth of cardboard. maybe some nuance is lost in translation, but I don’t quite understand the hype. but the concepts like I said, fantastic

      • Dojan
        5•4 months ago

        I think the concepts are what is getting people. Like you say, the characters are shallow, but the ideas are food for thought and feel decently novel, at least to me.

      • @[email protected]
        1•4 months ago

        Much of this could be said about one of the iconic figures, Isaac Asimov. Many of his characters were very two-dimensional, and all but a couple of the female characters had only one. The concepts, though!