81st World Science Fiction Convention

2023 Chengdu, the 81st World Science Fiction Convention 2023成都世界科幻大会
2023 Chengdu Worldcon logo
Status	Finished
Genre	Science fiction
Dates	18–22 October 2023
Location(s)	Chengdu, Sichuan
Country	China
Previous event	Chicon 8
Next event	Glasgow 2024
Website	en.chengduworldcon.com

The 81st World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon), also known as 2023 Chengdu Worldcon, was held on 18–22 October 2023 in Chengdu, Sichuan, China.^[1][2] The co-chairs were Chen Shi, Ben Yalow, and Hongwei He.^[3]

Some fans and authors criticized the location due to human rights in China,^[4] and over 100 authors wrote an open letter asking for the convention to be moved.^[5] After the convention, some American websites commented that a number of Hugo Award ballots were rejected,^[6] and that the administrators excluded some nominees from the awards process for political reasons.^[7]

• Cixin Liu (writer)
• Sergey Lukianenko (writer)
• Robert J. Sawyer (writer)

The World Science Fiction Society administers and presents the Hugo Awards,^[8] the oldest and most noteworthy award for science fiction. Selection of the recipients is by vote of the Worldcon members. Categories include novels and short fiction, artwork, dramatic presentations, and various professional and fandom activities.^[8][9]

Other awards may be presented at Worldcon at the discretion of the individual convention committee. This has often included the national SF awards of the host country, such as the Japanese Seiun Awards as part of Nippon 2007,^[10] and the Prix Aurora Awards as part of Anticipation in 2009. The Astounding Award for Best New Writer and the Sidewise Award, though not sponsored by the Worldcon, are usually presented, as well as the Chesley Awards, the Prometheus Award, and others.^[10]

The winners were:

The following committees announced bids for hosting the convention:^[14]

• Chengdu 2023^[15]
• Memphis in 2023^[16] (withdrawn in October 2021)^[17]
• Nice 2023^[18] (withdrawn in July 2020)^[19]
• Winnipeg in 2023^[20]

The site was selected by members of the 79th World Science Fiction Convention.^[21] After Chengdu was selected, the organizers of the Winnipeg, Canada bid pivoted to bid for the 2023 North American Science Fiction Convention, at which they were successful.^[22]

In an article on the Esquire magazine, Jason Sanford, a three-time Hugo finalist, said that “There were concerns that a couple thousand people from China purchased memberships [in the World Science Fiction Society] that year to vote for Chengdu. It was unusual, but it was done under the rules.”^[23]

More than 100 authors, including Hugo winners and Uyghur writers, signed an open letter in March 2022 calling for the hosting to be reconsidered due to ongoing human rights violations in the Uyghur region.^[5] The choice of location was criticized due to the possible effects of the Chinese government's censorship regime and the exclusion of authors publicly critical of human rights in China.^[4]

The voting statistics for the Hugo Awards, Lodestar Award, and Astounding Award were published on January 20, 2024,^[24] much later than usual.^[23] Questions quickly arose amongst authors surrounding several works that had been marked as ineligible without justification, such as author Xiran Jay Zhao, The Sandman episode 6, "The Sound of Her Wings", and Babel by R. F. Kuang, which had been favored to win.^[4][25][26] Further scrutiny has been leveled towards possible inconsistencies or anomalies in the statistics themselves.^{[25][27][better source needed]}

Commenters on the Facebook page where the statistics were released asked Dave McCarty, a veteran of the awards committee, to explain why the four works were found ineligible. He said that he could not share exactly why but pointed them to the organization's constitution and rules. When commenters were unable to find a rule or constitutional provision that sufficed, the exchanges grew heated, with McCarty sometimes questioning or disparaging the intellectual capacity of his interlocutors, behavior he later apologized for.^[23][26] Emails leaked by Hugo committee member Diane Lacey, acting as a whistleblower indicated that these works had been excluded due to self-censorship by the Hugo Award administrators in order to appease the Chinese government, which has a strict censorship regime.^{[28][29][7][30]} Additionally, an unknown number of nomination ballots from Chinese voters were rejected because the award administrators considered them to be too similar to a recommendations list published by Science Fiction World, and thus equivalent to a slate. Locus wrote that this occurred even though "there is no provision in the WSFS constitution to remove slates from the ballot".^[6]

Based on complaints about the 2023 Hugo award process and official statements made about those complaints, Worldcon Intellectual Property (WIP), the non-profit organization that holds the service marks for the World Science Fiction Society, censured McCarty and two individuals who presided over the Hugo Administration Committee of the Chengdu Worldcon. WIP also reprimanded the chair of the WIP board of directors. Both the director of WIP and chair of the WIP board of directors resigned.^[31][32][7]

In February 2024, as a result of the controversy, Esther MacCallum-Stewart, chair of the 2024 Worldcon, to be held in Glasgow, announced the following commitments for the 2024 Hugo Awards: the reasons for any disqualifications of potential finalists will be published no later than April 2024; the full voting results, nominating statistics and voting statistics will be published immediately following the awards ceremony on 11 August 2024; and immediately following the awards ceremony on 11 August 2024, the Hugo administration subcommittee will publish a log explaining any decisions that they have made in interpreting the WSFS Constitution.^[33][34][35]

• Hugo Award
• Science fiction
• Speculative fiction
• World Science Fiction Society
• Worldcon

• Worldcon official website
• Convention official website
• List of current Worldcon bids
• Mike Glyer (20 February 2023). "Chengdu Worldcon Distributes First Progress Report". File 770. Retrieved 28 February 2023.