Neil Gaiman and Paul Weimer included among authors excluded from Hugo Awards for fear of offending China: Report

The Hugo Awards, one of science fiction’s most prestigious literary awards, excluded several authors last year over concerns that their work could insult China, leaked emails reveal. Ta.

Authors Neil Gaiman, Paul Weimer, RF Kuang, and Sheeran Jay Zhao were deemed ineligible to be finalists for last year’s award, despite receiving enough votes. Published emails showed that the prize organizers were concerned about how the authors would be viewed in China, science fiction media outlet File 770 reported.

The Hugo Awards were held in China last year. Dave McCarty, head of the 2023 awards selection, reportedly said in an email last June that the event was “happening in China” and that the laws under which it must operate were “different. ”, the organizers wrote, “We should emphasize something.” It has a sensitive political nature. ”

Works that focus on China, Taiwan, Tibet, or other subjects deemed sensitive must be “highlighted to help determine whether they are safe to appear on the ballot.” McCarty resigned last month, according to NBC News.

The email was first reported by reporters from the news site File 770. Reporters reported that they knew that Mr. Weimer had been deemed “ineligible” for the Hugo Award for Best Fan Writer at the time the voting statistics were released.

The report’s authors also found that award administrators from the United States and Canada appeared to only read works published in English from the Western world. They found that Western award administrators were not concerned about books by Chinese authors because they may not have read them.

“Therefore, it is possible that some of these Chinese works were removed for reasons other than schedule,” the authors write.

The email was released by organizer Diane Lacey, who said the report’s authors were instructed to “scrutinize potential works” that may be sensitive to China.

“I am ashamed to say that I did so,” she wrote in an apology letter. “Please understand that you signed up knowing full well that there would be problems. I’m not that naive about the Chinese political system, but I’d rather the Hugo family completely collapse and burn. , I wanted it to happen.”