So today at the sauna I got asked to help with a panel, because the Finns know I am an expert on SF and can talk about anything. Tomorrow I have to fill a 1 hour panel talking about Asian science fiction. I know almost nothing. And so I’m asking you folks. I have emailed David Brin to ask about the Chengdu convention. Any other help would be much appreciated. Thank you.
9 thoughts on “Asian SF – Help!”
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Ultraman, baby! Makes the Hugo look like a hood ornament!
Wish I could contribute something about print-media Asian science fiction.
But how about a backup plan of extemporizing about the popularity of translated sf in Japan, the Seiun Awards, that Takumi Shibano is one of the translators, anime, manga, etc. etc.
By “print media” I had in mind “words in books” — obviously, manga is printed…
Locus covers it occasionally. Might the appropriate Locus person be a help?
Cheryl, beyond Haruki Murakami, there’s Vandana Singh. She’ll be guest blogging for Jeff VanderMeer in the next couple of weeks.
Malaysia has virtually no SF. Fantasy is confined to ghost stories. Horror stories abound – all concerning ghosts and spirits and things that go bump in the night. This kind of story has a traditional basis and belief in these kind of creatures/ghosts is very, very real still. At one stage (in the 90s I think) the government became concerned about the pervasiveness of this kind of belief and decided that they would not allow the distribution of any film about ghosts and such!
Fortunately, they did drop that kind of censorship.
Check http://www.depauw.edu/sfs/covers/cov88.htm
If only there were someone in Finland this week who knew about such a thing! They must be racking their brains…
I’m assuming that it is now after the fact–how did your panel presentation go?
I think it is fair to say that it could have been better. David sent me some really useful material that allowed me to talk intelligently about SF in China. I think that some of the audience were a little taken aback at how big a market China is. Other material was sketchier. And there were two things that didn’t really work. Firstly I’m mainly a book person and the other person on the panel was mainly a movie person, so we didn’t have a lot to say to each other. Also the panel was originally supposed to be in Finnish, so I think a lot of the audience was expecting a Finnish panel, not one that had to be part in English because of me. My co-presenter was trying to work in English for my sake, but she would have been much better off if she had stuck to Finnish. Still, these sorts of things can happen when you add someone to a panel at the last minute.
Jonathan – boy could I have done with you being there. You would have been so much better than me.