\#HugoVotingFiguresDrawFire The western SF/F community is all stirred up. I'm guessing this is as far as the whole thing goes; no more major developments.

McCarty has steadfastly refused to give any explanation, but he's shown everyone exactly who he is -- the SF community has turned on him in the West and I don't imagine he's got much of a future. No organization or individual in the PRC is going to make any further statements -- it's not like they can speak on behalf of the censors.

All of the people in the Chinese SF/F community who've spent years doing their best to uphold the reputation of Chinese SF/F internationally, and to popularize SF and promote openness \[in the PRC] have got to be absolutely beside themselves now. One big name told me they were feeling "crushed." Internationally, any reputation  \[PRC fandom had] for even-handedness in hosting SF events has been totally wiped out, and it's hard to imagine anyone \[here] having the nerve to try hosting an international SF event again, or anyone coming if they did. It looks as if we'll be stuck talking to ourselves, playing with ourselves, writing our own works and selling to ourselves.

And the reputation of the Hugos is at rock bottom too, thanks to this incident. I've seen a lot of people predicting the death of the Hugos over the last couple days -- more even than after the Sad Puppies scandal in 2015. If Glasgow doesn't take measures to make up for this, it could be all downhill for the Hugos from here. Right now I'm just waiting to see whether GRRM and Mary Robinette Kowal have anything to say.

btw this whole shitshow is also a real knife in the back for the overseas friends who spoke up for the PRC, like Mary Robinette Kowal, who fought against the controversy surrounding the pick of Chengdu as host city. When people organize events, they bring together everyone and everything they can; when we do it, we just piss everybody off as bad as possible. Overseas, the nominees and winners in every category are feeling pretty bad about this. I don't care who I piss off (including a few of the nominees from the PRC). It looks like this year's Hugo Awards will be a stain on its record. Never mind individuals - were there any organizations that profited off this?

The _Chengdu Business Daily_? _Science Fiction World_? Eight Light Minutes? The Chengdu government? They all seem like losers in this scenario. The Tianwen Program \[(a joint project of the China Writers Association and WSFC, announced in Chengdu in October)] is supposedly going to have its big launch in February, and it's going to be a big deal -- lots of awards, tons of money in prizes. But given that they had someone like David McCarty standing on that stage (Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of Japan president Hirotaka Osawa \[was] onstage at the launch ceremony, \[though] I don't think he knew was going on)...I'm not optimistic.
Remember the so-called "International Youth Science Fiction Alliance"  they were making such a big deal about before? Heard anything from them lately?  After they got caught making false claims and every school cut ties with them, they didn't even issue the clarification they said they would -- they just played dead and ran away. (Xie Mei? Are you out there?) And how about the big expensive Metaverse that was going to "aim to become the long-term online home for global SF fans?" Any new developments there? They've vanished and no one's at the helm. ([Worldcon Committee co-chair] Chen Shi? Anyone?)

That beautiful venue in the Pidu District hasn't been used since Worldcon -- they're still remodeling inside, maybe, with no word on when it'll reopen to the public as had long been planned. Are the "permanent art installations" mentioned in the original hosting big still there?

The Chengdu Worldcon isn't completely over yet -- we still have detailed financial reports to look forward to, as well as more detailed reports on membership feess and advertising and sponsorship revenues and member data that will be handed over to the organizers of the next convention. The organizers' inboxes must be overflowing now and I don't know whether anyone's even checking them. Play dead long enough, maybe you end up dying for real.