HONG KONG – The prestigious literary award, the Hugo Awards, faced controversy last year after excluding several authors from the shortlists due to concerns over their work or public comments being offensive to China, as leaked emails revealed. Among the authors excluded were Neil Gaiman, R.F. Kuang, Xiran Jay Zhao, and Paul Weimer, despite earning enough votes to be finalists. The concerns stemmed from the fact that the Hugo Awards were held in China for the first time, prompting organizers to consider the sensitivity of political issues and how certain authors’ works might be perceived in the country.
Dave McCarty, the head of the 2023 awards jury, highlighted the need to consider anything of a sensitive political nature in the authors’ work due to the different laws they were operating under in China. He specifically called for a review of any work focusing on China, Taiwan, Tibet, or other sensitive issues to determine if it was safe to include them in the ballot. However, McCarty resigned from his role in the awards last month.
The controversy surrounding the location of the 81st World Science Fiction Convention in Chengdu, China, where the Hugo Awards were held, led to an open letter signed by numerous science fiction and fantasy writers who protested the choice of location. The decision was criticized due to allegations of abuses against Uyghurs and other mostly Muslim minority groups in China that Beijing denies.
The leaked emails detailed potential “negatives of China” in authors’ published works, book reviews, and social media histories. Works like Kuang’s “Babel,” which won the 2023 British Book Award for Fiction, appeared to have been excluded simply because it was set in China. Zhao’s novel, “Iron Widow,” was flagged as a “reimagining of the rise of the Chinese Empress Wu Zetian.” Additionally, comments made by authors about the merits of holding the awards in Chengdu and whether they signed or shared the open letter were also flagged by the organizers.
One of the disqualified authors, Paul Weimer, expressed his frustration, stating that the vetting process went against the spirit of the Hugo Awards and science fiction itself. Organizers admitted their fault, with Diane Lacey, who wrote some of the emails, issuing an accompanying apology letter, acknowledging that she should have resigned in hindsight.
The controversy surrounding the Hugo Awards and their handling of sensitive political issues has raised concerns about the integrity and transparency of literary awards and how they navigate geopolitical considerations in the selection process. As the organizers of the 2024 Hugo Awards take steps to address the loss of trust in the administration of the awards, the incident serves as a reminder of the complexities and challenges of holding literary events in politically sensitive locations.