郝景芳2016年雨果奖获奖感言

Acceptance Speech by Hao Jingfang at the 2016 Hugo Awards Ceremony

Kansas City Convention Center Grand Ballroom

August 20, 2016

Well, I’m so glad that I can stand here. It’s my great, great honor to win this award. I first would like to thank Ken Liu – he is a great translator of my story. And I’d like to thank Lynn and Michael of the Uncanny magazine who publish my story. And I would like to thank everybody who voted for me. Thank you very much!

I’m not going to say that I’m very surprised of this prize because I already expected it for this scenario. Well, it does not mean that I’m very proud and I think I’m better than anybody else. The truth is that I also expected for another scenario that I’m not winning. I registered for a party called “Hugo Loser’s Party” after the ceremony, held by one of my favorite writers. Actually, I almost cannot decide which scenario I’m more looking forward to.

Science fiction writers love to expect all possibilities, whether it’s good or bad, it’s likely or unlikely. Sometimes, you will hear the science fiction writers talk about the strategies to face aliens, on the dining table, seriously. We just live in all possible scenarios. We live in all the parallel universes.

Back to my story, Folding Beijing, I also give a scenario of a possible future. All human nowadays have to face the problems of automation, the technological development, unemployment, and also inequality and other issues. In my story, I give one of the solutions, a quite dark one. Obviously, it’s not the optimal one. However, it’s also not the worst one. At least in my stories, people are not have to…people do not have to starve to death, and the government do not send the poor young people to the war field, which always happen in the reality. I don’t know what will happen in the true future. But I do hope that the real future will be brighter than my story.

Thanks for everyone. Thanks to my husband, my parents, my daughter, and also my friends for all the supports you’ve brought me all these years. You are my strength and my endless love. Thank you!

As Prepared for Delivery:

Hey, thank you, thank you all guys.

I’m so glad that I can stand here. Thank you, everyone. It is my great, great honor to win the Hugo award. Thanks for Ken for the excellent translation. Thanks for Lynn and Michael for publishing my story on their magazine. Thanks for everyone who voted for me.

I’m not going to say that I’m very surprised. I already prepared for this scenario. However, it does not mean that I’m very proud or consider myself better than the others. The truth is, I also prepared for the other scenario that I’m not winning. There is a party called “Hugo Loser’s Party” after this ceremony, organized by one of my favorite writers. Actually, I cannot decide which scenario I’m more looking forward to.

Science fiction writers prepare for all future possibilities, whether good or bad, likely or unlikely. You can hear sci-fi writers talking about the strategies to face aliens, at the dinner table, seriously. We care about all possibilities. We live in the parallel universes.

Come back to my story, Folding Beijing, I also describe a scenario for a possible future. Human have to deal with technological development, unemployment, inequality and social problems, regardless of which country you are in. I give one of the possibilities to deal with these issues, a quite dark one. Obviously, it is not the optimal solution. However, it is not the worst one as well. In this miserable story, at least people are not starving to death, and the government don’t send poor young people to the war field, which often happen in the true world. I don’t know what will actually happen in the reality in the future. I do hope that the real future is better than the scenario in my story.

Finally, I’d like to thank for my husband, my parents and my daughter, and my friends for all the supports you’ve brought me. You are my strength and my endless love.