For amusement, here is the site of the Chengdu Science Fiction Museum.
You can see in this photo that clearing has begun but nothing else has
happened yet... presumably this photo is from many months back. Ignore
the misaligned maps.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Jinlong+Lake/@30.6807329,104.3673104,638m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m7!3m6!1s0x36ee2dd1accc8d13:0xd6c61f05c44b8660!8m2!3d30.6771244!4d104.3708262!10e4!16s%2Fg%2F11pqwl5p0c

Keep an eye on this and see!

I have been talking to some Chinese fans recently who are feeling as if they
are losing control of the convention, with the publicity being contracted out
to a large corporation that isn't fan-run and of course the real estate and
construction interests involved with building this new museum. The municipal
government is very much supporting the convention but there is such a thing as
too much support too.
--scott

--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

On 3/17/23 10:06 PM, Scott Dorsey wrote:

> I have been talking to some Chinese fans recently who are feeling as if they
> are losing control of the convention, with the publicity being contracted out
> to a large corporation that isn't fan-run and of course the real estate and
> construction interests involved with building this new museum. The municipal
> government is very much supporting the convention but there is such a thing as
> too much support too.

It's already clear that the Chengdu convention is a failed Worldcon.
Veterans of Nolacon 2 will be able to point at it and say, "Hey, our con
wasn't _this_ bad!"

--
Gary McGath http://www.mcgath.com

Gary McGath <garym@mcgath.com> wrote:
>On 3/17/23 10:06 PM, Scott Dorsey wrote:
>
>> I have been talking to some Chinese fans recently who are feeling as if they
>> are losing control of the convention, with the publicity being contracted out
>> to a large corporation that isn't fan-run and of course the real estate and
>> construction interests involved with building this new museum. The municipal
>> government is very much supporting the convention but there is such a thing as
>> too much support too.
>
>It's already clear that the Chengdu convention is a failed Worldcon.
>Veterans of Nolacon 2 will be able to point at it and say, "Hey, our con
>wasn't _this_ bad!"

I wouldn't call it failed yet. It's going to be weird, and it's not going
to be like US worldcons, but my bet is that it will happen, that a lot of
people will attend (mostly locals) and that they will have a good time.
They'll see a few common Worldcon things and they'll miss out on others,
but I'm suspecting it won't be all THAT different than the Helsinki worldcon
where they tried hard to do as much as possible local-style.... and Helsinki
worked out weirdly but okay.

I also suspect it will cost a huge amount more money than expected and
alienate many local fans, but then again so did Nolacon 2...
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."