By Ersatz Culture: The inaugural Tianwen Awards were presented on Friday October 18, as part of a two-day event at the Chengdu SF Museum.

Nine categories were based on the decisions of judging panels, with a tenth category selected by a public vote of people who had applied to be Tianwen members, as previously covered in this post.  The official Tianwen website is somewhat lacking in details, especially regarding the conference and the events there, so this coverage is assembled from a variety of news articles and social media posts.

Note: names and titles are mostly via Google Translate; apologies for any errors in translation or transcription.

BEST NOVEL

• Liu Yang – City in the Well

BEST NOVELLA

• Fenxing Chengzi (“Fractal Orange”) – Descartes Demon

BEST SHORT STORY

• Hai Ya – The Spring Outside the Tulou

BEST SF VIDEO GAME SCRIPT

• Honor of Kings: Amber Age

BEST SF COMIC BOOK

• The Three-Body Problem: Part 1

BEST YOUNG SF WRITER(S)

• He Shan
• Liu Ziheng
• Pang Yujie
• Long Teng
• Ren Keye

BEST SF FILM AND TV SCRIPT

• The Wandering Earth 2 

BEST SF LITERATURE ORGANIZATION

• Science Fiction World

BEST NEW SF WRITER

• Liu Maijia

TOP 10 MOST POPULAR TRANSLATED SF WORKS OF THE DECADE (special award based on public vote)

• Greg Egan – The Best Of Greg Egan (collection)
• Ray Bradbury – Selected Short Stories (collection)
• Robert L. Forward – Dragon’s Egg
• Ted Chiang – The Life Cycle of Software Objects
• Frank Herbert – Dune
• Robert Sheckley – Store of the Worlds (collection)
• Andy Weir – Project Hail Mary
• Ursula K. Le Guin – The Found and the Lost (collection)
• Arthur C. Clarke – Rendezvous with Rama
• Olaf Stapledon – Star Maker

(Note; only the original authors were credited in the announcement, not the translators)

There is an 18-minute video embedded at the top of this page containing part of the ceremony, including Ben Yalow introducing the translated works award, and Hugo winners Hai Ya and Zhao Enzhe respectively presenting the Best New Writer and Best Comic awards.

OTHER ACTIVITIES. The event schedules show around 15 panels and presentations over the course of the two days.  These included:

Three musical items on the stage (links are to news articles with embedded videos of the performances): 

• A live musical performance titled “Why the Future”
• A group of primary school children performing a dance titled “Hello Future”
• A dance titled “Interstellar Exploration”

Prerecorded video messages from Richard Taylor (WETA special effects), Bill Lawhorn, and Pablo Vazquez were played — a video can be found embedded at the top of this page.

“[T]he second Science Fiction Industry Development Promotion Conference to industrialize science fiction”, the first such conference being part of the 2023 Chengdu Worldcon. Chen Shi (subject of  Worldcon Intellectual Property censure in January) was also on an industry-related panel. 

The N Universe Conference was also held for the first time at this event, although this included the fourth iteration of the associated awards.  The latter is a competition for original works on the theme of nuclear science, and is organized by the China National Nuclear Corporation.  The linked article also states (via Google Translate with minor edits):

As one of the official major events of the “Tianwen” Chinese Science Fiction Literature Competition, this year’s N Universe Conference has joined forces with the “Tianwen” Chinese Science Fiction Literature Award, reflecting the deep integration and mutual promotion of the two major fields of nuclear technology and science fiction literature. It is reported that writers who won the N Universe Science Fiction Award will also join the “Tianwen” Youth Writers Training Camp, and the two brands will cooperate deeply. In the future, N Universe and “Tianwen” will also jointly carry out overseas plans, grow together and create prosperity in the global science fiction wave, demonstrate cultural confidence supported by nuclear technology, and contribute hard-core strength to the development of China’s science fiction industry.

Note: although it may appear that Tianwen is using the same panda logo as the Chengdu Worldcon, the two logos are similar but not identical.  Per an earlier article from Red Star News (via Google Translate with minor edits):

“With the authorization of the copyright owner of the 81st Worldcon’s logo and mascot, the logo of this competition has made bold innovations and tributes to the spirit of the Chengdu Worldcon.” At the meeting, Yang Xiaoyang, Secretary of the Party Leadership Group and Chairman of the Chengdu Federation of Literary and Art Circles and Vice Chairman of the Competition Organizing Committee, announced the design of the competition’s logo, mascot and trophy.  Starting from oracle bone inscriptions, writing has been the medium for ancient people to ask questions to the heavens, and also the ancient people’s pursuit of the universe and nature. This kind of thinking is reflected in the design of the logo of the “Tianwen” Chinese Science Fiction Literature Competition. “We deeply integrated the logo of the 81st Worldcon with traditional Chinese calligraphy to create a unique logo for this competition. The ears, arms and golden star rings around the giant panda are outlined by the strokes of Chinese calligraphy, and the flying white part at the end of the star ring is composed of scattered stardust, symbolizing the boundless imagination of mankind.” Yang Xiaoyang said.