This weekend, I heard a remarkable account from a science fiction writer who wanted to go to the Chengdu Worldcon. He was talking to a small group of people including me, but I don’t know if he wants it publicized, so I’ll omit his name.
To go to China you need a visa, which requires going through a Chinese embassy. He made his application and, as requested, listed his professional affiliations. One of them, not surprisingly, was SFWA. He was asked what the abbreviation stood for and explained it’s “Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association.” (The name has changed once or twice while keeping the abbreviation.) This got some alarmed responses, and he was told they’d have to get back to him. The process dragged on without a decision. Finally, a few weeks before the con, he withdrew his application so he wouldn’t have a denied visa request on is record.
It’s bizarre that science fiction writers wanting to go to a science fiction convention were deemed suspicious people, but no more bizarre than the rest. Another person in the group said that some SF writers got expedited treatment, so it wasn’t consistent. It was also mentioned in the discussion that Ken Liu couldn’t get a visa, but I haven’t been able to confirm that. Ken Liu is the English translator of Chengdu GoH Cixin Liu’s best-known novel, The Three-Body Problem.
The writer had some very nice things to say about Chinese fandom. We don’t know much about what happened behind the scenes between the original con organizers and the CCP cronies who effectively took over, but it must have been trying for the fans.
I can’t speak authoritatively on this, but I believe the narrative about “the original con organizers and the CCP cronies who effectively took over” is a bit misleading.
Rather, Chengdu Business Daily (CBD, also sometimes referred to as CED or CDSB) people were the biggest “bloc” of the bid team at the time the Chengdu bid won, and it seemed to me that they solidified their power afterwards, steering the con in a direction of their choosing.
How much the CBD people can be accurately categorized as “CCP cronies”, I couldn’t say, & would prefer not to guess.
AFAIK CBD were always part of the original Chengdu bid, likely the driving force who dragged in various SF pros to give it more respectability within SF fandom. Once the bid was won, the SF pros were largely sidelined.
But I repeat, this is just my interpretation. Other people will know much more than me.
I am curious when exactly Yalow, McCarty got involved; I wasn’t really watching prior to the bid being won, so I dunno if they joined before or after. Possibly they were doing unofficial consultancy beforehand, and that became official afterwards?
My recollection is that Ben Yalow became co-chair months after the site selection. I don’t know how much he was involved before that.