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Introduction
by Chris M. Barkley

The earliest documentation of the phrase, "News is only the first rough draft of history," is attributed to a 1943 New Republic book review written by Alan Barth. The phrase quickly caught on with other writers and journalists at the time and for many decades, the late Washington Post president and publisher Philip L. Graham was wrongly given credit for the phrase.

For journalists, such as myself for example, the phrase rings true on a very basic and emotional level. And while what you are about to read here will be considered shocking and a seismic event in the history of SF fandom and the World Science Fiction Society in particular, it is my hope that it is just the beginning of a greater story yet to be told.

What my colleague and co-author Jason Sanford and I are going to outline in this lengthy report will most certainly not be the final word on the extraordinary events and actions surrounding the 2023 Hugo Awards that were adjudicated and presented by the 81st World Science Fiction Convention held in the city of Chengdu in China in October of 2023.

To understand how extraordinary these events were, I refer back to the 79th Worldcon held in Washington D.C. in December of 2021; a bid from fans based in The People's Republic of China won the bid for the 81st Worldcon over the bid from Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada by a wide margin.

This in itself was not unusual, except that there was a considerable amount of consternation on the method and accounting of the Chinese ballots. A majority of the ballots from China had email addresses and not the traditional street addresses that fans in other parts of the world usually provide.

The DisCon III committee allowed the contested votes and the Chengdu bid was declared the winner.

Almost immediately there were signs that the Chengdu convention committee may not have expected to win; the one sheet announcement had no guests of honor, hotel information or membership rates listed. Most alarmingly, several vital convention committees spots were either vacant or non-existent.

In the intervening twenty one months, there were long periods of silence from the concom, which caused a great deal of concern among many SF fans and convention organizers as well.

This period was followed up by a frenzy of activity. First came the announcement of the author Guests of Honor, the Hugo Award winning novelists ‎Liu Cixin from China and Canadian Robert J. Sawyer and Russian SF author Sergey Lukianenko.

Lukianenko, who was mostly unknown to readers and fans in the West, turned out to be an ardent supporter of Russian dictator Vladimir Putin and subsequently made inflammatory comments about his support for the unprovoked war against Ukraine, which began in February of 2022.

In addition, the Chengdu Worldcon was heavily criticized because it was being held under the auspices of an authoritarian regime which regularly spied on, discriminated against or jailed political dissenters, religious minorities, writers, artists, booksellers and publishers. There were also allegations that the government was colluding with business interests to build the venue the convention would be held in. The delays in the construction of the facility moved the date of the start of the Worldcon from early August to mid-October.

But, against all odds, the Chengdu Worldcon was staged successfully and was widely acclaimed by all those who attended, including myself.

I was invited by the Worldcon Convention Committee and its hosting organization, the Chengdu Science Fiction Society as a nominee in the Best Fan Writer category. (Full Disclosure: My airfare, lodgings and meals were paid for by the convention. I gave no considerations to the Worldcon in return for my attendance).

The Science Fiction Museum turned out to be a fabulous site for the proceedings, the panels were well attended, presentation areas were spectacular and the Hugo Awards Ceremony came off without a hitch.

But, having attended thirty one previous Worldcons, there is no such thing as a convention without some problems or complications; the main one was that I heard first hand of complaints by attendees that there were a limited number of tickets for the main events, the opening ceremonies, the Hugo Awards ceremony and closing ceremonies.

The only curious thing I noticed was that the long list of nominations and the voting results, which are usually out soon after the ceremony, were not released. In fact, that was still the case by the time I left China, which was two days later.

The final voting results were finally published on December 3rd, 2023, forty-six days after the end of the Chengdu Worldcon. There was no explanation for the delay.

And on January 20th, ninety-one days from the opening of the convention, the Long List of nominees was published on TheHugoAwards.org.

There was a firestorm of outrage, condemnation, speculation and rumors of malfeasance surrounding the absence of the works of novelist R.F. Kuang (Babel), screenwriter and producer Neil Gaiman (The Sandman), fan writer Paul Weimer and Xiran Jay Zhao, who would have been an Astounding Award nominee for Best New Writer, despite having enough nominations to make the Final Ballot.

At the time of its release, no further explanation was given by the Chengdu Worldcon Convention Committee or Hugo Award Administrators, other than the works in question were ruled not eligible..

Both Jason and I have taken care to diligently gather evidence to answer the following questions:

Who was responsible for the "not eligible" rulings?
Was there evidence to support marking these particular works "not eligible"?
Why were these particular works chosen?
To what extent was the Chinese Communist Party and business interests involved?
What measures should be taken to ensure that the disenfranchisement of future nominees is never repeated?
This report, which is being reported by myself and Jason Sanford, is not meant to be the final word on what happened at this Worldcon. We are hoping that others, both here and abroad, will follow in our journalistic footsteps and come forward with more information and details about these events.

We hope that this is not the last inquiry into the curious, shocking and ultimately devastating story that we hope will bring about changes in how Worldcons are run and how the Hugo Awards are administered. We also acknowledge that this report will be quite upsetting to the fannish community but we hope that exposing the truth will also lead to the first steps in healing these social and political wounds ailing us.

As journalists, we are dedicated to be fair, accurate, and equitable in our pursuit of the truth. We are lucky that we live in an open society where inquiries like this are not only legal, but possible.

Jason, I, and other dedicated journalists like the recently retired Linda Wertheimer (whom I quoted above) know that we carry a sacred responsibility to get it right and convey it directly to you, factually and without bias.

Chris M. Barkley
14 February 2024

Quote from: jeff37923 on February 18, 2024, 04:59:17 PM
So, it looks like the Hugo Awards have been co-opted by the Chinese Communists.....

https://www.patreon.com/posts/98498779?fbclid=IwAR17kjwf9yXLjOIg0Bv-YeQSEo08xLMiZBXXEgKMQ3bd39JAQf1Rpl75c5Q

• WorldCon voting for the 2023 site was "irregular," but the officials OK'ed it anyway (probably to avoid being called racist).
• The judges compiled a dossier of "questionable" works and authors, which they used to vet the awards.
• This vetting was partially based around what would piss off the CCP.
• Many of the assholes involved are either unapologetic (hanging their hat on "following orders") or seek to deflect to "big business interests" instead of the commies.
• The authors of this report seemed to be especially upset that the commies don't like LGBTQWifipassword+ and may have been censoring that
• The Hugos are still politicized trash
• I wouldn't weep if everyone involved dies in a fire...

Quote from: GeekyBugle on February 18, 2024, 05:17:36 PM
ROTFLMAO! The Baizuos are angry the ChiComs did to them what they did to anyone to the right of Mao!

Get fucked Baizuos!