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Science fiction authors were excluded from awards for fear of offending China (www.nbcnews.com)
submitted 2 years ago by to c/news@lemmy.world
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Leaked emails show organizers of the prestigious Hugo Awards vetted writers’ work and comments with regard to China, where last year’s awards were held.

Organizers of the Hugo Awards, one of the most prominent literary awards in science fiction, excluded multiple authors from shortlists last year over concerns their work or public comments could be offensive to China, leaked emails show.

Questions had been raised as to why writers including Neil Gaiman, R.F. Kuang, Xiran Jay Zhao and Paul Weimer had been deemed ineligible as finalists despite earning enough votes according to information published last month by awards organizers. Emails released this week revealed that they were concerned about how some authors might be perceived in China, where the Hugo Awards were held last year for the first time.

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[–] 1 point 2 years ago (1 child)

I'm not entirely clear on where you're drawing the line here but American cinema has a rich history of promoting mistrust in the U.S. Government. Eagle Eye, Three Days of the Condor, All the President's Men, Dr. Strangelove, and the Watchmen, all were mainstream movies produced in that 70s to 10s time period. Some or all of those depict institutionalized corruption on a level you'd probably not ever see coming from China.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (1 child)
    • Three Days of the Condor: Rogue CIA op "exposed" by a loyal CIA agent
    • All the President's Men: About the law and the good parts of the government uniting to stop a criminal president
    • Dr Strangelove: Rogue general with the POTUS et al trying to prevent world war 3
    • The Watchmen: You mean Alan Moore's wank rag? I don't think anything about that story is coherent enough to really over-analyze. But the HBO sequel series very much focused on the idea of The Good Cops/Supes
    • Eagle Eye: Did ANYONE watch this? So I'll talk about Enemy of the State instead since that is an awesome movie. And it very much is about a rogue senator (?) and the NSA overreaching and is stopped by the good government agents and Big Willy Style

    I don't think it is even a conscious effort most of the time. But it very much pervades US media. And a lot of it even boils down to the actual military propaganda like NCIS or Bradley Cooper's The A-Team. It is the idea that we are Americans and we are exceptional and we truly value individualism and everyone should praise the NCOs who are going to fight the good fight and make sure they never do anything bad no matter what the evil officers tell them... so make sure to shoot that kid your Sergeant is telling you to because that fucker totally has it coming.

    Mostly I am just trying to point out that we are already adjusting "global" media to placate major demogrpahics. The main difference, like I said, being that pissing off the US Government means republicans won't watch your movie. Pissing off the CCP means you need to be careful any time you are flying in the Eastern hemisphere.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (1 child)

    Three Days of the Condor: Rogue CIA op “exposed” by a loyal CIA agent

    The crucial point is CIA op. The CIA had an oilfield contingency plan. That's the organization, not just one corrupt individual. Definitely borders on institutional.

    All the President’s Men: About the law and the good parts of the government uniting to stop a criminal president

    "He also states the cover-up was not only intended to camouflage the CREEP involvement, but also to hide "covert operations" involving "the entire U.S. intelligence community", including the CIA and FBI."

    Sounds pretty institutional to me when two whole organizations are involved in corruption.

    Dr Strangelove: Rogue general with the POTUS et al trying to prevent world war 3

    Okay, then institutionalized stupidity.

    The Watchmen: You mean Alan Moore’s wank rag? I don’t think anything about that story is coherent enough to really over-analyze. But the HBO sequel series very much focused on the idea of The Good Cops/Supes

    Oh come on, the Government had collateral damage galore in Vietnam. And the killing of war protesters. All institutionally orchestrated.

    Eagle Eye: Did ANYONE watch this? So I’ll talk about Enemy of the State instead since that is an awesome movie. And it very much is about a rogue senator (?) and the NSA overreaching and is stopped by the good government agents and Big Willy Style

    The NSA is an institution and they blew up those civilian targets. Nobody stopped that. That's what triggered everything else.

    But this is my main point here:

    Mostly I am just trying to point out that we are already adjusting “global” media to placate major demogrpahics. The main difference, like I said, being that pissing off the US Government means republicans won’t watch your movie. Pissing off the CCP means you need to be careful any time you are flying in the Eastern hemisphere.

    Yes, China is creating censorship of the worst form imaginable. And it is affecting what we Americans are able to see on cinema. All the downvoters on here see nothing wrong with this picture?

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

    Oh come on, the Government had collateral damage galore in Vietnam. And the killing of war protesters. All institutionally orchestrated.

    And "Vietnam was bad" is a fight the US had long since lost. It is very acceptable to say "things were bad" then and it has increasingly become one of those "See, we don't fall for propaganda. Look how much we learned from the last time we entered a conflict we didn't understand with goals that weren't well articulated and rules of engagement that were the worst of all worlds". And if it isn't obvious: am I talking about Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Iraq, Afghanistan, or (Erastil protect us) Israel?

    But the institution is bad

    Yeah.

    It is the idea that we are Americans and we are exceptional and we truly value individualism and everyone should praise the NCOs who are going to fight the good fight and make sure they never do anything bad no matter what the evil officers tell them… so make sure to shoot that kid your Sergeant is telling you to because that fucker totally has it coming.

    Again, this IS how the US does propaganda. We like to pretend we are all unique individuals with maximum agency because FREEDOM. And that is how we somehow decided that "a few bad apples" doesn't ruin the bunch. And pretty much the basis for all the actual direct funded propaganda. Parts of the institutions are bad but the boots on the ground are heroes so you better fucking thank Chet Hanks for his service if you want some salmon.

    And... again, you are kind of falling for it hook line and sinker. Don't worry, I also didn't realize how pervasive this was and even pointed out that stuff like the Call of Duty games were "shockingly not 'rah rah america' because the bad guys are US generals". It really was the Bradley Cooper A-Team (which... I actually really liked) that made it obvious that... that is the point. The generals might make you do horrible stuff so you shouldn't feel bad if you rape and murder a family because you can't tell the difference between one set of brown people and another. But the men in the foxhole next to you and the NCOs who relay those orders are all good and heroic people who are just doing their best".

    And once you realize that is the formula? It becomes REALLY obvious how much media is "propaganda" whether it is directly funded by the US military or just people emulating the folk tales they grew up on.

    And it is VERY important to understand that. In the same way it is important to understand that not all pro-China spin is "And we only avoided war because general sexy china guy believed Amy Adams and chose to not escalate" or "China was kind enough to give a rocket to Childish Gambino and Boromir because they truly believe in science and humanity" and a lot of it really is the kind of stuff we saw in Rise of Skywalker.

    Because, yes, I am sure at least a few of those stories are outright thought crimes as far as the CCP is concerned. But a lot of it is going to just be a case of, to use an American term, someone not thanking the troops before a set or being overly critical of the brave men and women of the mujaheddin. It won't get someone outright banned, but it does lead to the discourse of "Well, they just get too political" which hurts the bottom line in other ways. It is just... because the CCP, "hurts the bottom line" really means "gets your whole event investigated by the CCP".

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