SFitze Chengdu issue 08 2023 part 2
-newSFplatter by ST-
AT THE CHENGDU WORLDCON 81st EDITION
This was Asia’s second Worldcon, China’s first, but also my first ever con, and if my own position was always transversal to SF, I feel attracted by these irregular flickerings and formations that have time and time again formed the social backbone of SF fandom all over the world. RiverFlow managed to collate a lot of information, including collecting a lot of original Chinese SF books amd original materials in very short time period which is really impressive. Early on in our TW dialogue I even managed to send Heliu aka RiverFlow some materials for the Zero Gravity fanzine from the Timpuri Noi - New Temporealities: The Xengeneses of SF an exhibition I have been concocting together with others over the last few years.
Perhaps it is no wonder that I instantly vibrated to his trans-local, outer-national/internationalist mosaic (North and South Korean, Egyptian, South Asian fandom histories and more) publication efforts gathered in his Zero Gravity #012 fanzine special issue. And perhaps it came as no surprise that 0 Gravity published by RiverFlow (and Ling Shizhen) got nominated and won the Hugo award for best fanzine!
ARCHIVING AND CARING FOR IMAGINARY COMMUNITIES
Platforms collapse, Internet breaks, communities age badly, clubs split and excommunicate each other, fanzines dissappear after just one issue, memberships petter out or they get taken over by corporate raiders, patent trolls or angel investor schemes (my particular chagrin with the personal story of magazines like Otaku Mag or Cosplay Gen that many have contributed to and nourished just to get closed behind some vaults). Constant deletion threatens such fragile analog traces and non-digitalized documentation, zines, and offline/online practices. Centralizing these data is extremely important, yet almost all done by enthusiasts. That is why I think the Chinese Science Fiction Database CSFDB established by Arthur Liu also merits all our respect and one should celebrate its existence. Also important is the Gcores – probably the largest gaming culture-related platforms in China (thx Zixuan!).
In my humble opinion, this is the very mission of present and future SF cartographers and ‘fans of SF fans’ (in Heliu’s terminology): they should aim to pick up the disparate pieces, situate, care-for and compare wide-spread and dispersed stellar communities of SF or SF exiles, as well as reaffirm the need for universal friendship and good dose of nerdiness. So, for the near future, maybe a state supported train ticket for SF fans to be able to attend the conventions or meetings - would also help out greatly and increase circulation between these remote organizations and passionate individuals. I'm saying this after the German state in the June, July and August months of 2022, to relieve pressure of inflation & rising oil & gas prices started supporting very cheap public transportation for a while - and thus demonstrated “Utopia” is not far. The state gave out a 9 € ticket that everyone could use to travel each month for the entire summer period throughout the entire country (but only on regional trains not fast trains ICE). And believe me people actually used that ticket to the max. But trains should be used at their fullest anyway. Of course they interrupted this good practice, but at least now people knew it's not impossible. If one government demonstrated this willingness to act and support public transportation, then let's consider this in the realm of possibility and probability for others as well.
Be they self-described fans of Dr Who, SW, Trekkies or Wandering Earth fans – they are primarily united by a commoning of their source material, by playful remix culture, by experimentation and a socializing experience that comes from having lived through eminently difficult times of tremendous technological, ecological and scientific - body-mind challenges and transformations.
As much I (together with others) have enjoyed this incredible and spectacular occasion that made it possible for us to rub some elbows with cherished authors, translators and editors who’s works I deeply appreciate and recommend – I am aware that I have spent and enjoyed most of my time in China being amid Chinese fandom. I say this without wanting to minimize a certain tendency to end up with participants from the Global South – in particular Egypt, Iran, Peru, Brasil, Argentina, Chile, Mexico, India (and in particular Bengal) and here I will mention some of them: Emad Aysha, Zoha Kazemi, Dip Gosh, Shweta Taneja, César Santiváñez, Gabriela Damián Miravete, Leonardo Espinoza Benavides, Tanya Tynjälä, Anna Rüsche and apologize to those whose names I omitted. Special mention the Japanese contingent, several whom I had the pleasure to meet and even talk at length: Yashima Yugen (thx for the introduction to Buddhpunk & Buddhist SF), Taiyo Fujii (thx for pins, sharp questions and insider knowledge) and especially the nightly meet-up and exchange with Takahiro Anno. Otherwise, much love to all of you out there who made this trip unforgettable: Bojan Tarabic / 保阳(translator of Liu Cixin in Serbian), Žarko Milićević (and for his Emitor SF mag special issue), Jessica (who's soup ordering and wise words stayed with me), Jeremy Szal (much appreciation for letting me touch Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Hugo), Roderick, Oliver (even if I did not get to go to Beijing), Felix, Pablo, and Shaoyan Hu from Singapore and many of who’s names on WeChat I did not get to scan. Also glad to have ended up one night at a local fruity beer with “Stella” Mayakovskaya (she's got an incredible biography including living in St Petersburg early 1990s and China - speaking fluently chinese and now teaching Ecophilosophy, ecosemiotics, multispecies ethnography, post humanist STS at Chiang Mai University). Shouts to the Italian SF interplanetary scouts from the Mufant Museum - Davide Monopoli and Silvia Casolari and hope we can install some bric-a-brac spaceships together in the future. Needless to say, I felt honored to he able to attend the prestigious Galaxy amd Hugo Awards and join in the celebratory spirit of it all.
Very glad that I got to meet Ken MacLeod (who’s The Corporation Wars Trilogy I am always giving as a gift to friends), and sad I did not meet Nnedi Okorafor, Wole Talabi, nor Regina Kanyu Wang and Xueting C. Ni 雪亭. Proud to have also joined the “Fanzine panel: Fanzine Stories” moderated by Ann Gry at the Worldcon with Dip. Many many thanks and deep respect to Sara Chen, Jane from SFW and none the least to fellow panelist and speculative fiction scholar刘骁 Liu Xiao !
A BIGGER SCIENCE FICTION WORLD
Another big and lasting encounter was with Zixuan(子旋 – still feeling such a failure at pronouncing his name) and Wu his life partner, a talented construction engineer. Zixuan, a friend of Heliu that I can now call a good friend myself is a young intellectual, SF studies advocate, SF historian, archivist and editor at the SFW magazine, a legendary Chinese SF magazine founded in 1979 (ha, the year of Ripley and the xenomorphs). Zixuan, with infinite patience and generousness, has been showing me both the hidden spots and Red tourist highlights (particularly Chairman Mao’s statue in Tianfu Square), the city lights and delights of Chengdu, while introducing me to his wonderful group of young and passionate comrades-in-SF.
Many thanks for recommending (and giving me a copy of) the study of Di Wang - Small Business, Everyday Culture, and Public Politics in Chengdu, 1900-1950 (or recommending his other works) and the short history of Chengdu with images, the cooking books and this deep dive into the world of teahouses. A big deal for a life-long tea lover like me. Also appreciate the fact that I got to enjoy - an edgy hangout such as New Chinese Style - Brick Tea - teahouse (amazing place, I urge everyone to check it out during their future Chendgu stop).
