The Chengdu Worldcon’s announcement of new dates and venues has provoked fans in China to raise their voices. Fans outside of China do not often get to hear these voices and need to listen to them when there is such an opportunity.
The Chengdu Worldcon does not share Western queries, questions and concerns back to Chinese fans. Chinese fans cannot always see the posts here. Nor does the publicity service Chengdu Commercial Daily, linked by fans in Chinese social media, report Western concerns or Chinese grass roots opinions.
Fans worldwide are well-meaning and want Chinese fans to have a great Worldcon. However, large commercial enterprises and real estate developments seem to have compelled a radical change in the original vision set by the Chinese Worldcon bidders.
Here are excerpts from Chinese social media. Obviously computer-produced translation is imprecise.
This is the Chengdu Worldcon’s announcement via Chinese social media, translated into English: “2023 Chengdu World Science Fiction Convention | Information currently available | [Time and place]”.
After joining hands with national fantasy fans to win the right to host the 2023 World Science Fiction Convention we’ve been thinking: The World Science Fiction Convention enters China for the first time, what should be done? In the world 7 stops away from the subway, Pidu is also worrying, what should the theme science fiction museum that is planned to be built for the citizens do?
~~~~~The gears of fate begin to turn ~~~~~
We hit it off with Pidu, and after many rounds of communication at home and abroad, we finally planned to plan and design this themed science fiction museum in accordance with the requirements of the World Science Fiction Convention to hold the World Science Fiction Convention.
This theme pavilion:
◎ Enough atmosphere, more than 3,500 people Hugo Award main hall, plus 200 theme salons, a large exhibition hall, a large amount of full.
◎ Beautiful enough, Zaha’s core design team (the main creator is a pure sci-fi fan, leaving a lot of sci-fi Easter eggs inside for everyone to explore).
◎ Sci-fi enough, from escalators to corridors, from restaurants to lounges, and even bathrooms will be full of sci-fi colors.
◎ Cost-effective, no venue fee, all the saved budget is used to reduce membership fees (Chengdu membership fees are about one-sixth of previous sessions).
With the support of the Science Fiction Museum, we also plan:
◎ Customize a sci-fi convention for science fiction fans that can last forever.
◎ Design sci-fi scenes that make sci-fi fans smile.
◎Relying on the science fiction convention to build a science fiction theme museum.
◎ Let the science fiction clubs of enterprises and schools have their own science fiction space.
◎ Finally materialize the community that the World Science Fiction Convention is proud of.
In order to achieve these goals and present a unique world science fiction convention, we need to “sci-fi” the construction, design, scene creation, and lakeside atmosphere of existing venues.
Within the scope permitted by the charter, after repeated discussions with the World Science Fiction Society (WSFS) and obtaining consent, we postponed the holding of the conference by about two months, and scheduled the Hugo Awards ceremony for the highlight of the conference on the weekend, and the new conference time and venue information was changed to:
-Place- Chengdu Science Fiction Museum, Pidu District, Chengdu City (tentative name)
-Time- October 18-22, 2023 (The Hugo Awards ceremony is Saturday, 21st)
Next, we will continue to make full preparations for this grand event, and look forward to global fantasy fans actively participating in the theme salon topic collection, business meeting topic collection, volunteer collection and other activities to create a party belonging to global fantasy fans.
PS: Refund instructions. We apologize for the inconvenience caused by the time change. After research, it was decided that all members who purchased offline tickets (Physical Admission tickets) after the official ticket purchase channel of the 2023 Chengdu World Science Fiction Convention were launched, and if they needed a refund, please send an email to the assistant’s mailbox ([email protected]), and the assistant will be responsible for processing refund-related matters.
A user going by “Zi Mozi Natsuko” posted on Weibo: “#World Science Fiction Convention# #Ten Questions Worldcon81#”
Ten questions for the organizers of the 81st World Science Fiction Convention:
1. Chengdu Business Daily, as a news media organization that has nothing to do with science fiction, How did it make its marketing planning company the organizer and trader of this science fiction conference? And why are the conference event mailboxes and complaints pushed to the sci-fi world, which has nothing to do with the conference?
2. The publicity service of this World Science Fiction Convention is obtained by Chengdu Business Daily Marketing Planning Company. Is there a benefit transmission for this company to be so closely related to the contractor, and the project that is won by public bidding?
3. There are a large number of ready-made conference centers in Chengdu, why do we need to build new science fiction museums, and is it overspending the budget? Why unrealistically push a lot of commercial real estate projects related to science fiction conventions?
4. Why are almost all mature and professional science fiction-related institutions, companies and organizations in China excluded from the bidding, preparation and decision-making process of this conference? The World Science Fiction Convention is a gathering of science fiction fans, why has this conference not had any form of public communication with any domestic and foreign science fiction fans?
5. What is the reason for the rescheduling announcement? Why is the notice only published in English on the extranet, but not in China?
6. Why didn’t the conference recruit volunteers from all over the country despite the inconvenience of transportation and academic restrictions? Why are college student volunteers across the country required to pay for their own food, lodging, and all other expenses during the volunteer period? Why is there no transparent, open and fair process for selecting and training volunteers?
7. Why rush to announce a vote for the Hugo Award when nominations are about to begin? Has the issue of non-English works nominated for the Hugo Award been resolved?
8. After the hasty rebooking, why is there still no refund and refund channel? Why have a series of technical problems such as payment problems for overseas participants not been solved?
9. Why has no agenda plan or invited guests been announced so far? With only half a year to go before the opening of the conference, why is there no effective domestic and foreign publicity?
10. What departments and agencies provide funding for the conference? Is there any commercial sponsorship and benefit delivery? Is the use of the activity calculated compliant and legal, audited and publicized? Is there a reasonable and compliant use of crowdfunding funds from sci-fi fans at the time of bidding? If the crowdfunding balance is balanced, will it be refunded or will it be used for another purpose? Why are there a large number of hotels and attractions unrelated to this conference on the official website of the event and the event notice?
There are only six months left before the opening of this science fiction convention, but the actions of the conference organizers do not make us see any possibility of a successful conference. These questions are the common voice of science fiction fans across the country.
A use going by “Science fiction light year” has a view: “#2023 Chengdu World Science Fiction Convention#”.
What a coincidence. This morning, the Chengdu World Science Fiction Convention just announced on Twitter that it would be rescheduled from August 16-20 to October 18-22, and (finally) clearly modified the venue to the Science Fiction Museum of Jingrong Lakeside World Science Fiction Park in Pidu District, Over there today Chengdu News (Three-body advent? According to reports, the construction of the new venue, the Science and Technology Museum, is expected to meet the completion acceptance conditions and complete the installation of the World Science Fiction Convention on August 30 this year (Figure 1). The news on January 5 still said that the acceptance and installation of the exhibition was completed on July 30 (Figure 2).
In this way, it is really difficult not to suspect that the rescheduling of the conference is because the (newly modified) science and technology museum was not completed as scheduled.
Emotional news media than to Chengdu World Science Fiction Convention declaration vote to buy the membership of the membership of the conference news Ducling ah. According to the charter, the organizing committee was supposed to provide the ticketing members with a progress report on the progress of the venue organization on a regular basis, but it has not been received so far.
However, the address of the new century city of the high-tech zone (the official website is still this address) on the original declaration materials is not used, why is it so rigid to change to this new venue? Looking at the relevant news, Pidu District (the area where the new venue is located) has long been using the name of the Chengdu World Science Fiction Convention to “take advantage of the situation, strengthen the industry, and make the brand excellent” (reference: Web link), and Vanke, a major commercial real estate owner, also mentioned in the announcement of its Jingrong Metropolis real estate that the “World Science Fiction Convention” was held in Pidu District (reference: Web link）。 It can only be suspected that in fact, the organizing committee sold all members early in the morning, and used the venue as a bargaining chip for the exchange of government performance and commercial real estate interests.
The World Science Fiction Convention is originally a conference for science fiction fans, not a conference held by the national government, on the contrary, it has always been taboo about the participation of the government. As early as when the Chengdu World Science Fiction Convention obtained the right to bid, there were opposition voices from foreign science fiction groups at the announcement scene in Washington, USA, and there were a large number of non-compliant votes saying that the Chinese government was operating in the background (reference:Web link）。 This is good, and he and the government capital are doing a big deal and giving people a handle.
And because the organizing committee suddenly announced that it would be rescheduled from August to October, many of the student parties that were originally able to participate in the summer vacation (members of various university science fiction associations had previously applied for ticket purchase support for Chengdu) are now unable to participate, and there is no refund channel.
Today’s announcement of the Organizing Committee of the Chengdu World Science Fiction Convention proposed that members who purchased membership before the end of January 31 (only 10 days left) had the right to nominate Hugo Award works, but the problem that the official website could not accept overseas credit card payment could not be solved, and foreign science fiction fans have asked one after another.
This conference originally eliminated the interference factors of the epidemic and had the support of national science fiction fans, which is a conference that everyone is very looking forward to. But now, it feels like chicken feathers. The follow-up reactions of foreign science fiction industries and science fiction fans also need attention.
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Wow, just wow. I only thought I didn’t know what to make of this situation before.
Wow, the Chengdu concom has managed to piss off even the Chinese fans.
Sounds like a capitalist conspiracy instead of a Communist conspiracy. Some company has essentially taken control of the Worldcon.
Thanks for this. This is extremely interesting, especially since the Chinese fans seem to share many of the concerns of western fans.
Thanks for this, Mike. Looks like the Chinese fans have some of the same questions I posted last night.
Which is reassuring news, after its own fashion.
What are SF colors? If anyone goes, let me know what colors the bathrooms are.
Thanks for posting this. Certainly sheds some light on the situation. I do wonder what’s going on with the con com, they didn’t seem totally incompetent during the bidding process. Was this just a lot more work than they expected or is it something else like government interference that they don’t know how to handle?
Wow – how did you find this material? Fascinating.
How brutal are those dates for out-of-town university students? The real tragedy will be if the student groups across China who rallied to buy Discon supporting memberships now won’t get to go. Hope there’ll be attention to mechanisms to include them virtually.
That’s going to be a beautiful pavillion. Construction must have halted when the city locked down all 21 million people late last year. I would personally have said Chengdu already has plenty of good convention facilities, but if this one was going to be free, that would have been a strong argument too.
The proof in the pudding may be future use of that site. Will the facilities be available and useful to a local convention going forward? Will the “Hugo Awards Theater” livestream future ceremonies? Or is it just a marketing gimmick? If it doesn’t end up benefiting the local community that would be the best evidence they screwed up. I guess we’ll know when we see what happens. I wish them luck.
What have they built to house the Loser’s Party?
Thank you for speaking up! As a student and sci-fi fan from China, I had invited many Chinese student sci-fi clubs to vote for Chengdu. But what Chengdu is doing now is too disappointing for us. I’ve already seen many Chinese fans preparing a joint letter to protest this change, and I already signed my name on that. Hopefully it works!
If the original dates are really impossible at this point, are there any other dates that work better for students?
More scandal?
——translated by DeepL
Keep an eye out for recent tweets from various big names in the sci-fi community. If they suddenly mention something from China that you haven’t heard of, keep your eyes peeled: it could be a heartfelt recommendation for a good work, or it could be a PR blurb (I’ve already spotted the suspicious situation and the suspected work). As we approach the voting and awards season, it’s also a time when companies are getting excited about their personal PR and soft copy campaigns. In the past few days, I’ve been approached by several middlemen who have paid to place science fiction recommendations (I’ve declined all of them).
For the record, I don’t charge for any science fiction recommendations. When I receive a book from a publisher, I will usually show pictures of it, and write some recommendations or tweets about it when I feel like it, but I will never interfere with science fiction awards by promoting science fiction for a fee.
The Hugo Awards will be presented at the World Science Fiction Convention in Chengdu this October, and nominations for members’ work will open soon. Officials have not yet (although there are hints) made it clear whether Chinese works will be allowed to vote directly, and how to buy a membership to qualify for the recommended vote, which also gives a lot of room for the active author community to maneuver.
As far as I know, some Chinese author agencies have already started campaigning, at least to attract attention and generate some popularity in their PR campaigns. I think in their view, compared to the Hugo Award (or other awards) finalists or winners (subsequently bring publicity to sell books or copyright adaptation income) the temptation, some of the publicity costs can be fully afforded (especially for the network platform traffic authors).
Friendly reminder. #daily offense to the sci-fi community
This is a quote from the Weibo user whose handle translates as “Science fiction light year” — they were quoted in the main post above giving their opinion of the venue change.
Twenty years ago in English-language fandom it was considered outside the bounds for an author to campaign for a Hugo, however, this is now the era of eligibility lists and active use of social media to canvass for support. I wonder if “Science fiction light year” thinks something more than that is going on, or it’s simply that their fan culture reacts to these kinds of appeals the way ours used to.
“But now, it feels like chicken feathers.”
Oy. It sure does. I was hoping for an event that would bring all science fiction fans in China and the rest of the world together, as one, and look, it’s happening. Just not the way we wanted.
This is another reason why the NASFic needs to be prepared to pivot ready to handle the Hugos. There is a good chance that this Worldcon will not happen.
http://www.concatenation.org/news/news9~22.html#editorial
heh. they quoted me inaccurately.
I’ll be honest, I’m actually surprised that there are groups of Chinese fans sufficiently invested in this to complain.
I’ve been assuming all along that that most of the site selection voters were fictional, that whatever entity was really running the show was just renting (and hopefully not buying) Worldcon for ~$200k.
Similarly, the complaints about Chinese authors campaigning for Hugos is also strangely encouraging to me, since it implies that at least some people don’t think the fix is in.
I’ve been assuming that the organizers were going to dictate (with the votes of the site selection voters I was assuming were fictitious) the Hugo nominations/awards, to make sure that everything the con is promoting is on-brand for the CCP.
So, hey, maybe I’ve been overly cynical about Chengdu?
… though, I guess I should probably wait to see what actually happens before embracing any level of positivity.
(To be clear, I’m not saying that I thought that Chinese fans didn’t exist. I actually consume a decent amount of translated Chinese content, so I’m aware that there’s a vibrant community of fans of SF/F content. My surprise was more at the notion that there was enough awareness of Worldcon that fans would legitimately organize and drop $200k on it.)
@Brian
Mike had items here at least a couple times about how much the Chengdu bid was doing to promote voting in site selection locally. In fact, it seemed that many single votes were from several students pooling money. So their 2000 votes represented even more real people.
@Steve Davidson
Most likely, that’s just a result of machine-translating your original comment first into Chinese and then back into English, which often results in gobbledegok.
@Brian
Most of the Chinese site selection voters are definitely real people(TM), often students and other young fans. Mike has reported about this a few times and Alison Scott actually watched part of Chengdu’s “get out the vote” livestream and chatted (via Google translate) with some of the viewers and noticed they were mostly students, who pooled their money to buy a supporting membership and voting token. I do hope that they get to enjoy the Worldcon they voted and paid for.
I also genuinely worry about the Chinese members of the con com, since it seems no one, neither in China nor in the West, has heard from them in months. And they were quite active before. They had fan tables at Worldcons, they threw parties, they were active on Discord during CoNZealand and DisCon. I chatted with representatives of the Chengdu bid/Worldcon several times on different occasions. They did not seem to be incompetent or disinterested either, instead they were very enthusiastic about the con they were planning to host. So the fact that the entire Chinese con com seems to have vanished is concerning. Because the only people we’ve heard from in recent times are western SMOFs like Ben Yalow who are stalling. And someone is still running their Twitter account, but that might be a western fan, too.
Oh, as usual, dear. I feel very sorry for everybody who had already scheduled vacations, plane flights, and so on, and the part about the concon having vanished from view is disturbing.
Jonathan on January 21, 2023 at 2:10 am said:
Unless the 2023 Chengdu Committee announces that they are unable to carry out their responsibilities, by the time we know that the 2023 Worldcon isn’t going to happen, the 2023 NASFiC will be over. How do you propose determining “that this Worldcon will not happen?”
I’m not being sarcastic; I’m dead serious about this. I’m the WSFS division manager for Pemmi-Con (2023 NASFiC), as we have two WSFS functions we have to perform: 2024 NASFiC Site Selection and the 2023 NASFiC Business Meeting (the first one ever, required due to changes ratified in Chicago for those cases where a NASFiC holds a site selection for another NASFiC.
Who do you think has the authority to announce that the 2023 Worldcon will not happen, other than the 2023 Worldcon committee. You certainly don’t have that authority. Nor does the 2024 Worldcon; they would have to figure out what to do if the 2023 committee defaulted, but they themselves are not the ones who could declare another Worldcon in default.
We’ve never had a Worldcon default before. We have had a Westercon do so, but their Chair declared that they were unable to carry out their responsibilities, and did so in a way that allowed the defined process for a default to be carried out in an orderly manner.
Other than a committee declaring their own default, I don’t see any way to impose such a declaration from the outside, at least as the situation stands now.
If it is shown to be true that no one from the Chengdu concom can be contacted, the bid should be declared void and a replacement site chosen for Worldcon. Yes this would be outside all norms and rules of the WSFS but so is the entire concom responding to no contact attempts for months.
Worldcon was awarded to a Chengdu convention committee, not to unknown outsiders or organizations who usurp the committee.
Ben Yalow is a co-chair of the Chengdu Worldcon and he is not failing to respond to contacts. He’s not very interested in sharing a lot of information. But one cannot say there’s no response from the committee.
It’s true we would like to see more signs of life from the original Chengdu bidders.
If the Chinese members of the concom are still in place and running Chengdu Worldcon, Ben Yalow should say this and explain why they are not responding to attempts to contact them. If he can’t or won’t do this, his participation shouldn’t be sufficient to set aside concerns about who is now in charge.
rcade: You began by saying —
The WSFS Constitution doesn’t have a counterpart to, say, the “failure to prosecute” rules of the Federal court where the court has authority to render a decision about a case that is before it if one of the parties fails to do what is required. The rule WSFS does have can hardly be called into effect when the Chengdu Worldcon is still an entity carrying on business. As alarming as it may be, the complete change in facilities is certainly evidence of carrying on business.
Does anybody think Glasgow 2024 has any interest in a hostile takeover of this year’s Worldcon? They have their hands full just doing what they’re supposed to.
@Kevin Standlee
Why would the 2023 committee need to declare their own default?
I may, of course, be missing something, but the way I read Section 2.6 of the WSFS Constitution, it doesn’t specify any mechanism for that section to apply. Rather, it just automatically kicks in when the 2023 committee is “unable to perform its duties.” Without any guidelines on how that status is determined, I would read that to say that the 2024 committee has the power to determine what action to take whenever they believe the triggering condition to be true.
Now, there certainly could be legal consequences if they believe the status occurred and the 2023 committee disagreed (and so I’d imagine most committees aren’t going to want to get involved in any but the most crystal clear of situations, such as a committee going fully silent), but to me, Section 2.6 operates when the committee is “unable to perform its duties” not when it says it’s unable to perform its duties.
Aside from this, the only other entity that I could imagine having authority would be the Mark Protection Committee (of which, of course, you are a member, so I mention only for those who might be unaware of its existence), either in its own right as a standing committee of WSFS or as the board of directors of Worldcon Intellectual Property.
WIP presumably has the power to police use of the trademarks, including granting or revoking licenses. I’m unaware of what the actual agreements with the committee look like (so this might not be legally possible), but obviously, revoking the license to the committee to use the ‘Worldcon’ or ‘Hugo Awards’ trademarks would necessarily lead to the committee being “unable to perform its duties” of holding a Worldcon.
(This is obviously a nuclear option, and could similarly have practical and legal consequences for WIP, but I mention it purely as a path that exists.)
Brian on January 22, 2023 at 8:34 am said:
It’s the only clear and obvious case of proving a default, that’s why. There is no outside entity that can obviously declare a default. Remember that Worldcons are nearly completely sovereign under Section 1.6.
That’s a terrible interpretation. Such an interpretation could be twisted in all sorts of ways to allow individual Worldcon committees to go with war with each other by threatening to declare each other in default. Besides, Glasgow has better things to do with its organizational entity than to get into a war with Chengdu.
I am the current Chair of the WSFS MPC/WIP. I agree that it’s conceivable that the entity that manages WSFS’s intellectual property could take action to defend WSFS’s service marks, just as it has done when other entities have misused those service marks. However, as you also point out, it’s a “nuclear option,” but probably better than setting a precedent that a Worldcon committee could arbitrarily unseat the other seated Worldcon.
The MPC, which includes an appointee from Chengdu 2023 and has Chengdu co-chair Ben Yalow as an appointed member, is not asleep and has been discussing issues raised by what is currently going on. It would be inappropriate for me to comment further than that until and unless the MPC directs me to do so.
In any event, Chengdu’s Worldcon has not met any clear criteria for a default, any more than DisCon III did when it postponed its convention to December 2021.
As a permanent Worldcon entity that has a need to speak to the Chengdu Worldcon committee over the museum using the name “Hugo Awards Theater,” the Mark Protection Committee should be contacting the concom now. If they hear back from the concom, the MPC will be able to reassure people that it is still in place and functioning. If they don’t hear back anything, that’s also information that members of WSFS ought to know.
I agree that’s a terrible interpretation. The lack of specifics means there’s a lack of mechanisms in a case like this. Which is a shame, because if a WorldCon is failing to fulfill its duties, it stands to reason that one of the duties it could fail to fulfill is the declaration of its failure to fulfill its duties. And then we’re stuck in a logic loop.
Although, I’m not sure what a fair mechanism COULD be. The closest I can think of is a vote of no confidence where members who are eligible to nominate/vote in that year’s Hugos are able to vote? But that is itself a logistical nightmare to pull off.
More like logistical impossibility. The only entity who has all the info for the current year’s membership is the current year’s Worldcon.
cfc
rcade on January 22, 2023 at 10:21 am said:
The MPC is currently discussing this and other related matters. You obviously want an instant response; however, the fifteen members of the MPC are spread over multiple continents and not all of the members live permanently attached to their email, so it takes more time than you might like to get a consensus about what the committee should do and say. I’m sure some people would like there to be a single Strong Leader who gives orders, but it doesn’t work that way. I’m may be the Chair, but that’s only first among equals.
Don’t speak for me. I didn’t make any assumptions about how long it would take for the MPC to report back pro or con on the functioning of the concom. I merely suggested a course of action that the MPC could undertake and why it would be beneficial.
rcade on January 24, 2023 at 7:06 pm said:
You said we should be doing things “now,” and I interpreted this as meaning that you thought the MPC should be issuing public statements about what we are doing, and that the action should take place immediately.
The MPC is discussing this issue and others. Two members of the 2023 Committee, including the co-chair, are members of the MPC. When a public statement is warranted, we’ll do so. Despite what you may think, we’re not ignoring the situation, as it does have a potential impact upon the intellectual property of WSFS, which the MPC manages for the benefit of all of WSFS, not just of any individual Worldcon committee.
Given your interest in this, It sounds to me that you might want to consider standing for election to the MPC.
I said now so that the MPC would have a satisfactory answer in now + x time instead of sometime later + x.
Before I ran for the MPC I’d need assurances that there’s a decent shot I could win unopposed. I don’t sense a groundswell of support for my nascent candidacy.
More seriously, if the Hugo Awards Marketing Committee ever needs help I’ve been publishing websites and running my own webservers since the 1990s. I also develop web applications.
Dear me! Beyond the outer limits. The convention enters the twilight zone.
Mike, thanks for picking up on this. In there are perhaps fen who have already purchased airline tickets.
This should surprise absolutely zero people who actually are familiar with contemporary China and its “politics.”
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