Thread by @silvaubrey

My #Chengduworldcon thread

Arrived after a 15-hour journey. 😵‍💫 But the tiredness was half cured by the lovely volunteers who showed me the way and organised my bus pickup to the hotel. And there are so many signages👍

I have the whole bus for myself lmao

Gifts when I arrived at the hotel! 太可爱 ❤️ The organizer have their own reception desk too.

More signages along the way

Forgot to mention that immigration and customs were smooth and easy. I was so ready to explain what a worldcon is just for fun but no chance.

Still jetlagged a bit and now confused in picking the panels I want to watch...which reminder me that having it online like ConNZ was actually easier coz I could go easily from panel to panel.

天啊 for the second day from eight panels I want to watch four 😭 *googling how to split myself*

City tour first stop : Wang Cong Temple

Beautiful temple and surrounding

We are so lucky there was a sketch and facechanging show! 😍

Second stop. Sichuan Food Museum.

OMG they provided us with a feast after. I am sooooo full I can barely walk. The food is fantastic 很好吃啊❤️❤️

There were only six of us so it felt like a private tour. Met other fans from Canada, Australia, etc. I was the only coming from an Asian country.

More signage. We saw them everywhere in the city. Great and serious promotion.

Bus too

Day 1. 18 October.
Finally got to see the venue with my own eyes.

Benben from The Wandering Earth 2!

First panel: Vampires around the World, feat. Leadie Jo Flowers.

Forgot to post the membership collection center. It was quite a hassle since you have to open the website (yes, need the internet connection) and login first. Better to have it ready before or maybe screenshot the page that shows your membership number.

There is no WiFi 😭😭

Another panelist now @anngraigh

My first panel miss! The Ancient Chinese Folklore one apparently is very popular and the room was too small. Now entering a room with no interpreter but they said one would come so let's see..

Missed that one too coz it is too troubling for the organizer (they did try) so I took the safe way and joined a panel with English speaker 😅 this one has @clarkesworld and held in a much larger room.

Other panelists: Deng Siyuan (mod?), Liu Bing, Pan Haitian, Qian Lifang. Discussing what is scifi is always an interesting one. 😄

Got to miss another one on Korean SF since they only provide Korean-Chinese translation 我哭了我不听懂😭😭 then to console myself I went to the SF fans exhibition which was pretty cool. Look, Doctor Who fanclub! Tibetan SF!

Got Tang Fei's signature! So happy! She is one of the authors in @kyliu99's anthology, Broken Stars.

Tired. Need coffee.

Got left out from three other panels due to no interpretation... Interesting themes e.g. on research and SF but 😰

And another panel I want to attend was full LOL now hungry again

Opening ceremony starting!

The base for the Hugo Awards a Panda!

So far the performances are awesome. This is my favorite, flying dunhuang goddess.

Waa, this is one is even better. The little kid dancing with AI 😍

LIU CIXIN LAOSHI LAI LE!

OMG there was the Three Body voice thing! Nice touch

The convention is now formally open!

My loot for today (the middle one was for free)

Have a funny story about our dinner but I need to rest now coz it's been a looooooong day. 明天见！

Day 2. Some changes in the panel schedule, so I spent time to read some Chinese SF history and check out some of my fave authors' handprints including @ChenQiufan's 😅

Cool exhibition hall

Lots of school children in the con since yesterday. Doing really cool study tour, I envy them. Wish we have this in Indonesia.

Ok first panel of the day (finally something I don't need interpretation for 🤭)

Gosh it was a whirlwind day again. Quick recap, I went to lunch with some new friends, we're searching for the so called Nebula food court camp but apparently nothing in there, but there was nice lady who took us walking to a really nice restaurant with excellent food! 😋

We saw some cool worldcon decor along the way including this moon rabbit 😍😍

2nd panel of the day. Omg I did not know that the Arabian bid was moved several times already. Felt like yesterday I was watching the Jeddicon presentation. Looking forward to Glasgow ofc, and nice to see Dublin bidding again since I missed the 2019 one.

3rd and final panel for the day. So happy to watch a panel feat. one of my twt mutuals @Regina_Kanyu 😁

Met another new friend, a Beijing journalist who invited us for hotpot session together. Finally got to taste Sichuanese hotpot! And tanghulu as dessert! I only saw this in historical cdramas before. Another great day of #Chengduworldcon!

Day 3. First panel, Between Chinese Mythology and Global Scifi. There is Hao Jingfang laoshi among the panel, another of my fave authors 😍😍 #Chengduworldcon

Hao Jingfang is speaking now. People should read her book, Vagabonds (already translated), one of the best space opera novels in the last five years.

Darn it, Xia Jia is not here today for signature session, I could have gotten a selfie with Hao laoshi. But anyway, the queue line for Liu Cixin Laoshi has already started although his part won't start until 2.30 pm.

2nd panel of the day. Lots of Latin American authors.

Recap time! Met a fellow Southeast Asian, @yishkabob which is awesome. Had lunch at the same place as yesterday because it was that good. Then came back for signing session with Liu Cixin but the line was crazy long. People were already quieing since 10 AM, it started at 2.30 PM.

The line goes from ground floor to the third floor..... A friend got it after waiting for 3.5 hours. Yeah not for me. 😆🤭

Oh forgot to mention I met @shwetawrites and @Regina_Kanyu again today. (Met Shweta the first time at the Locus booth in the 1st day) 😊

This is one of my favorite volunteers! So very helpful. They are the heroes of this Convention.

The merchandise store is so tempting....

Some of my fave food today. Look at the cute food stalls with the worldcon branding. The last pic is a lovely fish dish for dinner.

As a new (attending) worldcon participant, wonder how it holds up compared with the previous ones... Aside from the huge govt support though, so like the organisation of it.

早安！Today is my last day at the Worldcon, hoping to meet more friends and catch great panels etc.

Hoping to meet Hao laoshi and @xuetingni and many other wishlist. Not sure if I could make it to Xia Jia's signing session which has been rescheduled to tomorrow (AFAIK).

We definitely would need more Asia-based conventions.

I haven't even met Kim Bo-young and I know she is in the convention 😭

First panel of the day

Probably the most enlightening panel on the current taste of Chinese SF readers so far.

Gotta left early to get Hao laoshi's siggy and found a long line under the sun, which finally decided to show up after a few cloudy days.

Not as bad as yesterday's though

I GOT HAO JINGFANG'S SIGNATURE 我很开心啊啊啊

@gushidoc 老师你在哪儿？我想看你🙏🥺

Sorry, I mixed up Yang Feng laoshi with another person before. Just wanted to say I liked what she said about webnovels not going to replace physical books.

Lunch was...interesting. Since this is Saturday, the crowd is increasing and the restaurants inside (basically only KFC, pizza hut and subway) have run out of food (at least when I was there) so we had to settle with plain bagel in a food truck nearby.

Second panel of the day feat. @Francesco_Verso. I forgot when was the first time I listened to his Solarpunk presentation, either connz or futurecon (?). But anyway, the room is super packed.

What my mom usually says

Queuing again for signatures...

Two lines: left one for Robert Sawyer (hasn't started), the other for Baoshu, Jiang Bo, etc.

I see a friend standing under the sun in the sawyer line. But then he did spend 3.5hrs for Liu Cixin so. It is a beautiful day.

Failed to get both, time was up. But I am fine. Still thinking how to get Xia Jia's sig tomorrow though. 没有时间，我打算去看看熊猫😅

Consoling myself by looking at these paintings, assuming they were by school kids though clearly can draw better than me. Love the food theme 🍲🥕

This one has a space dog

Space elevator?

Just realized they have this cuisine map in the info desk, well, it's never too late!

Starting

This clapping is so confusing but because I'm stupid and have no rhythm 😅

So I voted for 15 categories. Usually my voted nominees mostly did not win but let's see.

Astounding award ✅

✅ Means my top 2 wins

Best fan artist ✅

Richard Man giving speech. His works are reaaaaaally good.

Best fan writer ❌

Best fan cast ❌

Congrats @heliu79457845 for winning Best Fanzine

Best semiprozine ✅

Best Professional Artist ✅

Second Chinese win of the night. Totally deserved.

Best Editor (Short Form) ✅

Actually great (so far) that many winners came so I could watch their speeches.

Whoa director of Wandering Earth

Best Dramatic Presentation (Short Form) ❌ voted for Andor ofc. but The Expanse is good too 😅

Director of Three Body TV series (Tencent) is here to present the winner for best dramatic presentation. Which ofc I got it right. ✅

Best Related Work ✅

I am on a roll tonight!

Congrats @terryandrob!

Best Graphic Story or Comic ❌

Best series ✅

Best Short Story ✅

Best novelette ✅ SO HAPPY!

Third Chinese win of the night as well. But it is really superb. Congrats Hai Ya laoshi.

Best novella ❌

Best novel ✅✅✅✅✅

Nettle and Bone is THAT good!

Oh so I voted for 17 categories apparently.

12 ✅
5 ❌

Probably my best record in voting 😅

Well that's the end of my #Chengduworldcon livetweet. See you at Glasgow 2024 hopefully 🤞

Winners etc

Source: weibo.com/1888379125/495…

About the after party, it sounded like it was an exclusive one, some friends who were also in the same one hundred light plan whatever thingy with me said they could not get it. Not sure if it is the same as the losers party though.

Sad that I did not meet the Ugandan bid representative at their table yesterday. Or any of the Seattle people actually. I only met the Glasgow one. But then I missed A LOT of people including most of my twitter moots. 😅

Will definitely go to Glasgow, not sure about Seattle. Been to Uganda before, same long flight like to Europe. I think the place needs to be super interesting/in my wishlist first before decided to go. And also the length of the flight. Having it in Asia or Aussie/NZ is the best.

Kuanzhai Alley's worldcon promo

I am sure the street is older than many countries.

The 漂亮妹妹 who was very patient with my awful/nearly nonexistent Mandarin. Love this tea alot, saw it first from an Indo YouTuber in her channel and finally got to have it.

Subway system here is very good, I think. Very cheap too.

And of course if you go to Chengdu you must visit the panda base. I just found out from @anngraigh today that you could use your Worldcon pass to get in for free. 😲 I did not know when I visited it yesterday. 🥹

Anyway, another regret that I had during the con was that I did not attend any of the business meeting. I didn't even know where that was. From @File_770 report seems that many items are of interest to me, like the Asfic and best young writer stuff... Will wait for the minutes.

The Tianfu airport is so quiet.

有意思🤔😅

Books! Not sure I understand the caption but ok.

Finally back home. Thank you @chengduworldcon for the warmth and hospitality for the event for the one hundred light years participants from far away. You definitely set a high standard for worldcon. See you again.

@threadreaderapp unroll