SMOF News, volume 1, issue 28

War and Worldcon, and news in brief.

The World and Its Pressures on Worldcon

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has reverberated in countless ways all around the world. It comes into the convention world via Sergei Lukyanenko, best known as the author of Night Watch, a guest of honor at the 2023 World Science Fiction Convention in Chengdu, China.

Lukyanenko has emerged as a vigorous supporter of the war. He has been publicly against the very existence of Ukraine at least as far back as 2014, when he forbade any translation of his books into Ukrainian in retaliation for the ousting of a government friendly to Russia.

In response to a request that Lukyanenko be dropped as a GoH, the Twitter account for the 2023 Worldcon replied that it was being discussed.

The other author GoH for the 2023 Worldcon, Robert J. Sawyer, has covered his Facebook and Twitter accounts in Ukrainian flags.

And an impossible petition

Meanwhile, authors Ausma Zehanat Khan and Sara Mughal Rana have drafted an open letter calling for Worldcon to be removed from China entirely over its ongoing treatment of the Uyghurs. It begins:

To Members of the WorldCon Site Selection, WorldCon Community and Voters:

We the undersigned authors, human rights organizations, and members of the science fiction and fantasy community are asking you to revoke the 2023 WorldCon bid to Chengdu, China.

The site of the 2023 Worldcon was selected from two bids, for Winnipeg and Chengdu, last December, by the members of the 2021 Worldcon. At this stage, there are no bids, just a seated Worldcon.

It later elaborates:

…that the site allocation bid for WorldCon 2023 be changed to any other reasonable contender. … Given the egregious human rights violations that are ongoing in the Uyghur region, we are urgently asking the organizers of WorldCon 2023 to join us in condemning these violations by revoking the 2023 site allocation bid to Chengdu, China. This is not a protest against the citizens of China, with whom we stand in solidarity, but rather against a government that is committing crimes against humanity, as documented above.

The organizers of the 2023 Worldcon are those very citizens of China, the committee which produced the winning bid for Chengdu. While a seated Worldcon committee can change sites if the original one becomes unusable for some reason, it is hard to imagine any site outside China being a reasonable contender for a China-based organization to run a Worldcon at.

In remarks to File 770, Rana admits that she does know all this, but why complicate a grand gesture with details:

We are aware of the process. We consulted a number of individuals who are part of Worldcon’s organizing teams or were chairs of the business meetings. We know that a bid cannot be revoked. But our purpose is more symbolic than that.

There is also a plan to change the rules for Worldcon site selection:

This is why we have plans to propose a constitutional amendment regardless of Chengdu happening. Any amendment that is passed takes two years through two host cities, so this does not affect Chengdu.

Specifically, any change that big to Worldcon rules needs to be approved in meetings at two successive Worldcons, so if the amendment is introduced anytime soon, it will wind up being voted on at the Worldcon in Chengdu.

And the conspiracy theory

Another point of international pressure on the 2023 Worldcon is the belief in some parts of the community that this marks the beginning of total Chinese ownership of Worldcon, where any subsequent bid to hold it outside the country will be swamped by another wave of voters similar to the one which won this site selection.

Worldcon has since its creation been subject to the hegemony of one country that could dictate its course through sheer force of numbers, namely the United States. Until recently, no Worldcon bid could win without significant support from US-based fans, and guests and program items could be dropped for offending US sensibilities (in at least one regrettable case, on the basis of purely imaginary information).

At present, there is no Chinese bid for 2024 (the only one so far is for Glasgow), and the 2023 committee has been consistent about describing the Chengdu Worldcon as a once-in-a-decade event.

In Brief

• The winner of the Battle of the Gen Con Beers is Dragon’s Delight, “a legendary Belgian-style ale formed over the flames of the Golden Dragon, with grain raided from the Drundag Ridge, and hops from the Askrean Plains.” It will be reissued with new artwork for this year’s convention.

Event Calendar

Weekend of March 11-13

• MarsCon 2022, Bloomington, Minnesota, USA

• Foolscap, online (usually Seattle, Washington, USA)

• MACE West (gaming), Asheville, North Carolina, USA

• ChillerCon UK (horror), Scarborough, UK

• Pulp Fiction Central, Dania, Florida, USA

• Blue Ridge Furfare (anthropomorphic), Asheville, North Carolina, USA

• Fur Out West 5: FoWassic Park (anthropomorphic), Scarborough, Western Australia, Australia

• Marmalade Dog 25 (gaming), Kalamazoo, Michigan, USA

• AireCon (gaming), Harrogate, UK

• Granite Game Summit, Nashua, New Hampshire, USA

• Stumptown Game Summit, virtual

• Arizona Game Fair, Mesa, Arizona, USA

• Fargo GameFest, Fargo, North Dakota, USA

• GADCon 2022 (gaming), Aberdeen, Maryland, USA

• MidWinter ‘22 (gaming), Haugesund, Norway

• Protospiel Knoxville (games in development), Knoxville, Tennessee, USA

• Louisville Arcade Expo, Louisville, Kentucky, USA

• MinamiCon 27 (anime), Southampton, UK

• All-Con (media), Dallas, Texas, USA

• Wintercon (media), Jamaica, New York, USA

• TFcon (Transformers), Burbank, California, USA

Weekend of March 18-20

• MarsCon 2022, Williamsburg, Virginia, USA

• Clockwork Alchemy (steampunk), Burlingame, California, USA

• Furnal Equinox (anthropomorphic), Toronto, Ontario, Canada

• Texas Furry Fiesta (anthropomorphic), Dallas, TX

• Furnexion (anthropomorphic), Monterrey, Mexico

• Token Con (gaming), Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA

• Zuiderspel (gaming), Veldhoven, Netherlands

• Southern Board Game Festival, Lafayette, Louisiana, USA

• GOBweb (boardgames), virtual

• Meeple Peak (boardgames), Carson City, Nevada, USA

• COSCON XXXII (RPGs), Lyndora, Pennsylvania, USA

• Concrete Cow (RPGs), Milton Keynes, UK

• Hotlead (miniatures gaming), Stratford, Ontario, Canada

• Playthrough (video games), Raleigh, North Carolina, USA

• Triad Anime Convention, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, USA

• Anime Detour, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA

• Sausomecon (anime), Independence, Missouri, USA

• EvilleCon 2022 (anime), Evansville, Indiana, USA

• Tora-Con 2022 (anime), Rochester, New York, USA

• Toronto Comicon, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

• Paris Manga Sci-Fi Show (media), Paris, France

• CarrierCon 2022 (media), Alameda, California, USA

• MondoCon 2022 Spring (media), Budapest, Hungary

• DarkLight Convention 4 (Supernatural), Paris, France

Weekend of March 25-27

• AggieCon 51, College Station, Texas, USA

• MidSouthCon 38, Memphis, Tennessee, USA

• HELIOsphere, Piscataway, New Jersey, USA

• FantaSci 2022: Time Warp Edition, Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina, USA

• Consonance 2022 (music), Milpitas, California, USA

• Motor City Furry Con, Ypsilanti, Michigan, USA

• Plattecon XXXV: The Redemption Arc (gaming), Platteville, Wisconsin, USA

• GameStorm 22, Portland, Oregon, USA

• Terminal City Tabletop Convention (gaming), Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

• WashingCon (gaming), Washington, DC, USA

• Ludinord (gaming), Lille, France

• Game On Greensboro, Greensboro, North Carolina, USA

• SIMCON 43 (boardgames), Rochester, New York, USA

• Adepticon 2022 (wargaming), Schaumburg, Illinois, USA

• FreeCon 18 (anime), Tallahassee, Florida, USA

• Nadeshicon (anime), Québec City, Québec, Canada

• Banzaicon (anime), Columbia, South Carolina, USA

• SwampCon 1v1 (anime), Gainesville, Florida, USA

• AnimeJapan 2022, Tokyo, Japan

• Zenkaikon 2022 (anime), Lancaster, Pennsylvania, USA

• Anime Recharge 2022, Des Moines, Iowa, USA

• ExpOtaku Almería 2022 (anime), Almería, Spain

• Fluke 2022 (independent comics and zines), Athens, Georgia, USA

• Revelcon 32 (media relaxacon), Houston, Texas, USA

Weekend of April 1-3

• CyPhaCon 2022, Lake Charles, Louisiana, USA

• Roscon-2022, Moscow, Russia

• Costume-Con 40: Rogues, Royals, Renegades, Rockville, Maryland, USA

• Atlanta Game Fest 37, Alpharetta, Georgia, USA

• LeiriaCon (gaming), Leiria, Portugal

• LexiCon 2022 (gaming), Lexington, Kentucky, USA

• LexiCon-IL (RPGs), Lexington, Illinois, USA

• Animarathon (anime), Bowling Green, Ohio, USA

• Cape Anime, Cape Girardeau, Missouri, USA

• KokoroCon (anime), Nottingham, UK

• Tokyo Alley (anime), Perth, Australia

• AniFest 2022 (anime), Torrance, California, USA

• FACTS (media), Ghent, Belgium

• Angers Geekfest: La Culture Geek Au Féminin (media), Angers, France

• Quad Cities Comic Con, Davenport, Iowa, USA

• Vaca-Con (media), Vacaville, California, USA

• WonderCon 2022 (media), Anaheim, California, USA

Weekend of April 8-10

• LuxCon 2022 (Eurocon), Dudelange, Luxembourg

• ConStellation, Lincoln, Nebraska, USA

• Jack Williamson Lectureship, Portales, New Mexico, USA

• Springmoot (J. R. R. Tolkien), Exeter, UK

• 221B Con (Sherlock Holmes), Atlanta, Georgia, USA

• FK-NO 3 (music), online

• CosXpo (costuming), Reading, UK

• Golden State Fur Con (anthropomorphic), Los Angeles, California, USA

• CODCON XXV: Re-Roll! (gaming), Glen Ellyn, Illinois, USA

• Adirondacon (gaming), Glens Falls, New York, USA

• DaveCon (gaming), Roseville, Illinois, USA

• MEPACON (gaming), White Haven, Pennsylvania, USA

• Buckeye Game Fest 2022, Columbus, Ohio, USA

• Long Island Tabletop Gaming Expo 2022, Garden City, New York, USA

• Havoc XXXVI (miniatures gaming), Sutton, Massachusetts, USA

• Conpulsion Lite (RPGs), online

• Ambercon 2022 (Amber Diceless Roleplaying Game), online (usually Livonia, Michigan, USA)

• LAN All Night V: LAN of the Rings (LAN gaming), Grapevine, Texas, USA

• CoMo Retro Con (retro video games), Columbia, Missouri, USA

• Aselia Con (Tales game series), Irving, Texas, USA

• Con Ja Nai XXVI (anime), Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA

• Jaycon 11 (anime), Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania, USA

• Made in Asia (anime), Brussels, Belgium

• Romics XXVIII (comics), Rome, Italy

• Sci-Fi Scarborough (media), Scarborough, UK

• Rod Con (media), Cedar Falls, Iowa, USA

• Wicked Comic Con, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

• SC Comicon, Greenville, South Carolina, USA

• Central Texas Comic Con, Waco, Texas, USA

• Bedford Who Charity Con 7 (Doctor Who), Bedford, UK

• Star Trek Mission Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA

• Dairycon 2022: The Moo Adventures (Transformers), Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, USA

Coda

• We Don’t Talk About Pluto (Jon Pumper, YouTube)

Thank you for reading! Send tips, corrections, press releases, and letters of comment to: smofnews@gmx.com.