纽约时报中文网 - 中英对照版-中英被曝将批评中国作者排除在外雨果奖陷争议

The Hugo Awards, a major literary prize for science fiction, have been engulfed in controversy over revelations that some writers may have been excluded based on their perceived criticism of China or the Chinese government.

作为重要的科幻文学奖项，雨果奖因有人曝光它可能将一些被视为批评中国或中国政府的作者排除在外而陷入了极大的争议。

Suspicions in the science fiction community have been building for weeks that something was amiss with last year’s awards, which rotate to a different city each year, and in 2023 were hosted in Chengdu, China. Now, newly released emails show that the awards were likely manipulated because of political concerns.

科幻小说界对去年颁奖情况的怀疑几周来一直在发酵。雨果奖每年在不同的城市颁发，2023年的颁奖仪式在中国成都举行。现在，新曝光的电子邮件显示，去年的奖项可能出于政治考虑受到了操纵。

Here’s what we know.

以下是我们知道的情况。

What are the Hugo Awards?

什么是雨果奖？

The awards, first established in 1953, are given annually at a gathering hosted by the World Science Fiction Convention. Writers are nominated and awarded prizes by members of the World Science Fiction Society, which includes science fiction fans. Each person can nominate five works for each category. Those entries are then tallied so that the six works with the most votes become finalists. Previous winners have included luminaries like Ursula K. Le Guin, William Gibson and Philip K. Dick.

该奖项创办于1953年，每年在世界科幻小说协会主办的大会上颁发。由包括科幻作品迷在内的世界科幻协会成员对作家进行提名和颁奖。每个成员可在不同的奖项类别里获得五件作品提名。对被提名作品进行投票后，获得票数最多的六件作品将入围最佳作品的决选。以前获得过雨果奖的作家包括乌苏拉·勒古恩、威廉·吉布森和菲利普·迪克等有影响的人物。

Why were writers, and fans, upset?

为什么作家和粉丝感到不安？

In January, the Hugo Awards revealed which writers had been nominated for last year’s awards, and by how many people. The information made clear that multiple authors who had enough nominations to be finalists were shut out of the process; award administrators had marked them as not eligible, without specifying a reason. Among the excluded authors were two Western writers of Chinese descent: R.F. Kuang, who is Chinese American and who was widely expected to be recognized for her novel “Babel,” a historical fantasy set in mid-1800s Oxford, and Xiran Jay Zhao, a Chinese Canadian author whose novel “Iron Widow” is a sci-fi reimagining of China’s female emperor.

今年1月，雨果奖公布了去年的奖项提名情况以及投票数据。这些信息清楚地表明，多名获得了足够多票数可以入围决赛的作者被排除在外；管理统计奖项投票的人将这些作家标为不符合提名资格，但没有说明原因。被排除在外的作者中有两名华裔西方作家：一名是美籍华人作家匡灵秀，人们曾普遍认为她的小说《巴别塔》会入围决赛，那是一部以19世纪中期的牛津为背景的历史奇幻小说；另一名是加拿大华裔作家赵希然，她的小说《铁寡妇》讲述了以中国女皇帝为原型的科幻故事。

“I assume this was a matter of undesirability rather than ineligibility,” Kuang posted on Instagram in January. “Excluding ‘undesirable’ work is not only embarrassing for all involved parties, but renders the entire process and organization illegitimate.”

“我认为这是个不想要而不是不符合资格的问题，”匡灵秀今年1月在Instagram上发帖写道。“将‘不想要’的作品排除在外不仅让所有相关方都很丢脸，而且使整个过程和组织变得非法。”

What did the leaked emails reveal?

泄露的电子邮件揭示了什么？

The exclusion of popular authors of Chinese descent led to speculation that the awards’ administrators had weeded out those whose political views might prove controversial in China. Those suspicions were confirmed recently, when emails leaked by Diane Lacey, a member of last year’s Hugo administration team, were published in a report by Chris M. Barkley, a science fiction fan and journalist, and Jason Sanford, a journalist and science fiction writer.

将受欢迎的华裔作家排除在外的做法引发了人们的猜测，认为雨果奖的管理者们剔除了那些政治观点可能在中国存在争议的作家。去年的雨果奖管理团队成员黛安·莱西泄露出来的电子邮件在同是科幻小说迷的记者克里斯·巴克利和兼任科幻小说作家的记者杰森·桑福德的报道中发表后，这些怀疑最近得到了证实。

The email correspondence published in the report showed that Dave McCarty, one of the Hugo administrators, had advised other members to vet the finalists and “highlight anything of a sensitive political nature” in China, including works that focused “on China, Taiwan, Tibet or other topics that may be an issue in China.” Such works, he added, might not be safe to put on the ballot.

报道中公布的电子邮件显示，雨果奖管理者之一戴夫·麦卡蒂建议其他成员审查入围决赛的作品，“明显地标出任何（在中国）有敏感政治性质的内容”，包括关注“中国、台湾、西藏，或其他在中国可能有问题的话题”的作品。他补充说，将这些作品列入选票可能不安全。

“This really just cut to the core of the awards,” Sanford said. “For a genre that believes so deeply in free speech to willingly take part in doing research on political issues of awards finalists, knowing that it’s going to be used to eliminate some of those finalists, it’s outrageous.”

“这确实触及了奖项的核心问题，”桑福德说。“对一个如此坚信言论自由的文学类别来说，愿意对奖项决选入围者进行政治问题的调查，而且明知调查结果将被用来剔除其中一些入围者，这样做令人愤慨。”

In an interview with The Times, Lacey confirmed that she had provided the emails, and said that she shared them publicly because she regretted her actions, and wanted to ensure that the Hugos would not be tainted again in the future. “I felt very guilty about what I did and wanted to be able to look myself in the mirror again,” she said.

莱西在接受时报采访时证实，她提供了这些电子邮件，并说她将邮件公开是因为她对自己的行为感到后悔，并希望确保今后的雨果奖项不再被这种做法污染。“我对自己做的事情感到非常内疚，希望以后能重新面对自己，”她说。

What’s still murky?

仍有待厘清的事情

It’s unclear if the awards’ administrators were acting under pressure or were pre-emptively seeking to avoid controversy. Lacey said that she was not aware of overt directives from Chinese officials, but added that McCarty had mentioned getting guidance from Chinese counterparts. In one of the released emails, McCarty told a colleague to be on the lookout for “mentions of Hong Kong, Taiwan, Tibet, negatives of China” from writers or in their works, and added that “I will try to get better guidance when I have a chance to dig into this deeper with the Chinese folks on the committee.” McCarty did not immediately respond to an email request for comment.

目前尚不清楚雨果奖的管理者是迫于压力那样做的，还是为避免争议而预发做的。莱西说，她不知道是否有中国官员的明确指示，但补充说，麦卡蒂曾提及收到了来自中国同行的指导。在一封公开出来的电子邮件中，麦卡蒂告诉一位同事，要留意作家在言论中或在他们的作品中“提到香港、台湾、西藏、中国的负面内容”，并补充说，“我会尽量在有机会与委员会里的中国同行深入交流时获得更好的指导。”麦卡蒂没有立即回复置评邮件。

Questions also remain about whether Chinese writers were excluded as finalists for political reasons.

是否有中国本土作家因政治原因被排除在决选之外，目前也不清楚。

What has the fallout been — for Worldcon, and in the sci-fi literary world?

这件事对世界科幻大会和科幻文学界有什么影响？

Last month, Worldcon announced that McCarty had resigned from his post and that he and two others had been censured “for actions of the Hugo Administration Committee of the Chengdu Worldcon.”

上个月，世界科幻大会宣布麦卡蒂已辞职，他和另外两人“在成都世界科幻大会上的雨果奖管理委员会中的行为”已受到了谴责。

Esther MacCallum-Stewart, the chair of this year’s Worldcon, which will take place in Glasgow, issued an apology for last year’s debacle and said that steps would be taken “to ensure transparency and to attempt to redress the grievous loss of trust in the administration of the Awards.”

今年的世界科幻大会将在格拉斯哥举行，大会主席埃丝特·麦卡勒姆-斯图尔特对去年的错误表示道歉，并表示已采取措施“确保透明度，并试图纠正对奖项管理严重失去信任的情况”。

Writers who were excluded from last year’s award have expressed outrage.

去年被排除在奖项之外的作家们表达了愤怒。

“The Hugo Awards tried so hard to appease the Chinese government they circled back to being racist by preemptively disqualifying Chinese diaspora,” Xiran Jay Zhao wrote on X.

“雨果奖竭尽全力想安抚中国政府，他们预先剔除海外华裔作家参赛资格的做法反倒让他们成了种族主义者，”赵希然在X上写道。

In an email, Kuang called the revelations “disappointing.”

匡灵秀在电子邮件中称曝光的内容“令人失望”。

John Scalzi, who was a finalist last year, said that the 2023 awards were “fraudulent,” and that he felt betrayed by the administrators.

去年入围决赛的约翰·斯卡尔齐说，2023年的奖项带有“欺骗性”，他感到自己被管理人员辜负了。

“The Hugos, because they are a fan-given award, are the ones that are closest to the hearts of dyed-in-the-wool science fiction fans,” he said. “To have them compromised like this is a punch in the gut to a whole lot of people.”

“雨果奖项是由粉丝们颁发的，因此是最贴近铁杆科幻迷内心的奖项，”他说。“它这样妥协，对很多人来说是一记重击。”