Hong Kong winner of John W. Campbell sci-fi award stands by ‘fascist’ comments as new name for accolade is considered
- In her acceptance speech, Jeannette Ng denounced sci-fi legend Campbell – a known white supremacist – for creating a ‘sterile, male, white’ genre
- The award’s sponsor, Dell Magazines, admits it is considering renaming the award and it is only a matter of finding the right time
Hong Kong science fiction author Jeannette Ng became the city’s first to receive the John W. Campbell Award for best new writer last Sunday in Dublin, Ireland, but not without calling out the influential sci-fi writer whom the award is named after as a fascist.
“John W. Campbell … was a fascist. Through his editorial control of [the magazine] Astounding Science Fiction, [Campbell] is responsible for setting a tone of science fiction that still haunts the genre to this day. Sterile. Male. White. Exalting in the ambitions of imperialists and colonisers, settlers and industrialists,” said the 33-year-old in her acceptance speech.
Ng, who became the third Chinese author to win the award in its 47-year history with her fantasy novel Under the Pendulum Sun, is not the first to be critical of Campbell. Despite having launched the careers of some of the most notable names in sci-fi writing, including Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke and Robert A. Heinlein, the American writer and editor was known as a white supremacist who published essays supporting slavery and segregation. He died in 1971 at the age of 61.
In Sixth Column, written by Heinlein and commissioned by Campbell, the United States is invaded by Pan Asians and the story ends with the invention of a race-selective weapon that kills the “slanty” and “flat face”.
“Jeannette Ng is one of the people Campbell’s fantasy world would have murdered,” one online comment bluntly puts it.
