Censorship Corner: The Hugo Awards Controversy

From Zoe Guy's 2-16-24 VULTURE article entitled "The Hugo Awards Scandal Is a Mess":

The Hugo Awards are facing a controversy of intergalactic proportions. According to emails leaked on February 14, the volunteer body that administered the 2023 Hugo Awards appeared to have directly engaged in self-censoring the nominees over political concerns about the host country, China. The emails allege members of the Hugo administration team succeeded in keeping certain books off-ballot because they wanted to operate under Chinese laws related to content and censorship, Hugo-nominated sci-fi author Jason Sanford and Hugo-winning fan writer Chris M. Barkley wrote in a special report on February 14. “In addition to the regular technical review, as we are happening in China and the *laws* we operate under are different … we need to highlight anything of a sensitive political nature in the work,” Dave McCarty, division head of the Hugo Awards Selection Executive Department, wrote in an email dated June 5, 2023. Talk about the call coming from inside the house. Following a round of voting that left four writers, including former Hugo Award winner Neil Gaiman and Babel’s R.F. Kuang, out of competition during the latest awards season, fans are accusing the Hugos of being book-award thieves [...].

Speculation that the Chinese government played a role in censoring the votes grew. Comic-book writer Gaiman has previously voiced criticisms of the government for incarcerating writers. Both Kuang and Zhao were born in China and now live in the West, and their books tackle social issues in allegorical fantasy worlds. However, McCarty denied the notion in a Facebook post in the days following the release of the nominating-statistics release. “Nobody has ordered me to do anything …” he wrote per the Guardian on January 24. “There was no communication between the Hugo administration team and the Chinese government in any official manner.”

Based on leaked information from committee member Diane Lacey obtained by Barkley and Sanford, the censorship occurred at the selection committee’s own behest. 

To read the entire article, click HERE.