Chengdu WorldCon

The 81st WorldCon was held in October 2023 in Chengdu, China. The Guests of Honor were authors Liu Cixin and Robert James Sawyer. Sergey Lukyanenko was announced as a guest of honor early on and appeared on the website, however he did not actually attend. No public statement was made to explain this (although there was controversy surrounding his invitation, see below).
The original dates and location (August 16-20 at Chengdu Century New International and Convention Center) were changed in an announcement in January, 2023.
Ben Yalow, Chen Shi and He Xi were co-chairs. More than 1,200 guests from the science fiction community and over 20,000 fans from 35 countries and regions attended."The 81st World Science Fiction Convention Closes in Chengdu" - Chengdu Worldcon website, October 23, 2023 (archived via Wayback, Nov 27/23)
== Location ==
The event was held in the Chengdu Science Fiction Museum in the city of Chengdu, the fourth largest city in China billed as the "sci-fi city". The convention was held over three floors of the museum, with the central Theme Exhibition Hall, Exhibition Hall for Fans and the Hugo Hall on the first floor and a variety of smaller halls (named after the planets) for the various panels and activities on the second and third floors. 
The building was commissioned specifically to host the WorldCon and was built in twelve months. WorldCon was the inaugural event and marked its opening."China's newest museum is straight out of science fiction" - CNN, Oct 29/23 
== Bid and Con Committees ==
== Program ==
https://en.chengduworldcon.com/ProgrammeEvents_94_8/114.html
== Controversies ==
WorldCon in Chengdu was plagued with multiple controversies, beginning with site selection voting. There were also concerns about the Guests of Honor, date change, delays in Hugo Award voting, lack of communication from the ConCom to members outside of China, and a great deal of controversy about several aspects of the Hugo voting and results thereof. 
=== Site Selection ===
Per the WSFS Constitution, the site selection for WorldCon 2023 was held at WorldCon 2021 (Discon III) in Baltimore. The selection was fraught with controversy with a number of issues arising:
1) The only two bids at the time of voting were Chengdu (which launched in 2017) and Winnipeg, who were allowed to file after the official closing date. Bids by New Orleans, Spokane and Nice had previously folded and Memphis withdrew their bid after Winnipeg was allowed to file. No explanation was provided by the Discon III committee for why the late bid was accepted.
2) 
a) Apart from the late filing of the Winnipeg, there were other irregularities at the site selection. Chengdu's victory was due to a large amount of mail-in ballots from China, the result of the committee's extensive campaigning. It was felt that this ignored the unwritten Worldcon rule that the Worldcon community (those who had attended previous conventions as well as participated in the sci-fi fandom) and resulted in allegations that Worldcon could be "bought" by a bid committee with the funding to campaign outside of the Worldcon communityChengdu Worldcon - Controversy - Fancyclopedia #comment from Steve Stanley Dec 18/21 - Chengdu Wins 2023 Worldcon Site Selection Vote - File 770comment, Kevin Standlee in "Elections Have Consequences", Kevin Standlee - Dreamwidth, Jan 21/24. 
b) Additionally, there were issues with the contents of the pre-con ballots; 1591 only contained email addresses, not street addresses as is required by item 4.4.1 of the Constitution:
The site selection committee requested clarification from the Business Meeting, as the rule does not state the address section has to be filled in, only that it appears on the ballot. A motion was tabled by the Winnipeg in '23 committee stating that "any ballot without membership numbers, name, signature and address that meets the country of origin’s requirements should be counted as “No Preference.”""DisCon III Business Meeting Keeps Lodestar, Best Series; Passes Controversial Resolution About Site Selection" - File 770, Dec 17/21 The motion was passed, but as it was non-binding, the site selection committee chair Tim Szczesuil overruled the committee and declared Chengdu the winner.Chengdu Wins 2023 Worldcon Site Selection Vote - File 770, Dec 18/21
In an interview with Esquire much later, chair of the DisCon III committee, Mary Robinette Kowal elaborated on the reasoning for accepting those votes:
3) China's human rights record and especially their persecution of the Uyghur minority were raised as a reason for Chengdu to not be selected as a Worldcon site. Even after the successful bid, open lettersOpen Letter to WorldCon Committee to revoke Chengdu Bid 2023 - Jan 14/22"SFF Authors Release Open Letter Condemning China as Host of 2023 Worldcon" - File 770, Mar 7/22 were sent to the World Science Fiction Society asked for the selection to be rescinded; according to the WSFS Constitution the Chengdu committee was the Worldcon committee for 2023 and the WSFS had no power to change the decision. 
====Links====
*"All I'm Going To Say About The Call To Unseat The Chengdu Worldcon" by Steve Davidson - Amazing Stories, Mar 9/22
*Worldconned: How China Co-Opted Sci-Fi’s Crown Jewel Amidst the Uyghur Genocide By Danielle Ranucci, Human Rights Foundation, Nov 17/23
===Guests of Honor ===
====Sergey Lukyanenko====
The selection of Sergey Lukyanenko (author of the Nightwatch series) was hugely controversial. In the past he had made his support of Putin's government known and has been extremely vocal in his support for the Russian invasion of UkraineSergei Lukyanenko - Position on politics - Wikipedia. His invitation to attend Chengdu as a Guest of Honor was met with petitions demanding he be disinvited, proposed boycotts and extensive online discussion. While he remains listed as a GOH on the official website, he did not attend the convention. There was no public statement from the committee as to why.
====Cixin Liu====
A popular science fiction author in China, Liu was the first Asian writer to win a Hugo Award in 2015 and internationally lauded for his book, "The Three-Body Problem". He also supports China's mass internment of the UyghursLiu Cixin’s War of the Worlds by Jiayang Fan, The New Yorker - Jun 17/19 and was associated with SenseTime, a company known for creating the AI "Uyghur Alert", facial recognition technology used to track the minority population and alert officials as to their whereaboutsDear World(con): Do not host the Hugos amidst Uyghur concentration camps by Sarah Rana, Winter Is Coming.net Mar 19/22.
===Hugo Awards===
With the release of the winners and statistics for the Hugo Awards for 20232023 Hugo Awards - The Hugo Awards website, a number of concerns about the legitimacy of the process have been raised:
====Disqualifications====
The disqualification of a number of works and individuals without explanation.Astrolabe 36: Panic! At The Hugos - Astrolabe, Jan 20/24 Specifically the multi-award winning novel Babel by R.F. Kuang (Best Novel nominee), Paul Weimer (Best Fan Writer nominee), Sandman Episode 6: "The Sound of Her Wings," (Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form), “Fogong Temple Pagoda” by Hai Ya (Best Short Story) and Xiran Jay Zhao (Astounding Award). The report was also released at the very last minute before the required deadline, which was seen as suspicious. Dave McCarty, a Chengdu Worldcon vice-chair and co-head of the Hugo Awards Selection Executive Division responded to questions on his Facebook by saying "After reviewing the Constitution and the rules we must follow, the administration team determined those works/persons were not eligible." and refusing to elaborate on why these particular works were deemed ineligible. The ensuing thread became heated, largely in response to McCarty's insistence that those who didn't accept his statement above were stupid.Dave McCarty - Facebook - Jan 20/24 
The impacted authors have reacted in various ways:
*Statement from Rebecca F. Kuang (author of Babel)
*Hugo Award final Data--and my Ineligiblity(?!?!) Paul Weimer - Patreon
*Xiran Jay Zhao - X/Twitter post, and a TikTok post along the same lines has been removed for "violating community rules". [They appear to have been later reinstated as of Feb 15/24]. There is also a Tumblr post where they talks about the issue in-depth.
*Neil Gaiman responded to McCarty's Facebook thread (now privacy-locked) asking for clarification as to why Sandman had been deemed ineligible, however received the same (if slightly more polite) response about following the Constitution. He has not made an official statement, but has responded to various interviews, social media posts and even a Tumblr Ask outlining his confusion about the decision and the lack of any kind of explanation:
Of the awards committee, Dave McCarty and Kevin Standlee have resigned from their positions with Worldcon Intellectual Property (WIP), the nonprofit responsible for the World Science Fiction Society’s service marks. They, as well as WorldCon 81 committee co-chairs Chen Shi and Ben Yalow were censured by the organization for their roles in and responses to the allegations of censorship"Resignations, Censures Follow in Wake of Hugo Awards Controversy", by Sofia Stewart, Publishers Weekly, Feb 1/24. Yalow is also no longer listed as part of the Glasgow WorldCon committee.
====Statistics====
It also appears there are widespread inconsistencies in voting numbers. In his Twitter post of January 20, 2024, Marshall Ryan Maresca pointed out issues with the numbers posted:
He went on to further examine the provided statistics and came to the conclusion that:
The full analysis of the statistics (provided in the link above by Maresca) on January 20, 2024 includes this conclusion:
After a second analysis, Jones concluded that there were some unusual results in the numbers, but was unable to be specific as to her conclusions: 
====Lack of Transparency====
That there are discrepancies is undisputed, however the Award Committee's failure to be transparent only exacerbated the scandal. From an article published in Esquire on February 2, 2024:
====Investigative Report, February 14, 2024====
On February 14, 2024, Chris M. Barkley and Jason Sanford released a lengthy report (released simultaneously on File770 and Genre Grapevine and also available to download as an e-book epub file and as a PDF) on the allegations of censorship, actions by the Hugo Awards team and confirmed (by way of emails released by whistleblower committee member Diane Lacey) that:Kat Jones, who had been part of the eligibility research team for the Chengdu Hugos, resigned from the Glasgow Committee following the release of this reportGlasgow 2024 Hugo Awards Statement – 15th February 2024 by Esther MacCallum-Stewart, Chair, Glasgow 2024, A Worldcon for Our Futures. (Wayback Feb 15/24). In a statement posted at File 770, she clarified her role, referring to the released emails:
It is anticipated that the impact of these revelations will continue to be felt within the science fiction fandom.
====Links====
* by Jay Blanc - Tumblr repost from Dreamwidth, Dec 16/21
* by Mike Glyer - File 770, Jan 20/24
* by Kevin Standlee - Dreamwidth, Jan 20/24
* by John Scalzi - Whatever blog, Jan 21/24
* by Cora Buhlert, personal blog, Jan 21/24
* by Jay Blanc - Tumblr, Jan 21/24
* by Jay Blanc - Tumblr, Jan 22/24
*WTF Happened with the 2023 Hugos? (or, A Scandal in Chengdu) - SFF180 Live 🚀 - YouTube - Jan 24/24
* by Amy Hawkins - The Guardian, Jan 24/24
* by Adam Morgan - Esquire, Feb 2/24
* by Chris M. Barkley and Jason Sanford (February 14, 2024)
* by John Scalzi - Whatever (personal blog) (February 15, 2014)
* thread started by halaku at /rbooks (February 15, 2024)
* by Cory Doctorow - Pluralistic (personal blog) (Feb 22/24)
*Tag: Hugo2023 - blog by Camestros Felapton, with various articles on the situation.
==References==
Category:2023 Conventions
Category:2023 Awards
Category:Science Fiction Conventions
Category:Scandals
Category:2024 Events
Category:Worldcons
Category:Conventions in China