Beijing and Chengdu, September 2025
Sep. 27th, 2025 02:42 pm![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png)
I went to China last week, for the second time this year and third time in my life, a couple of days working in Beijing and then a couple of days at Galaxycon in Chengdu. Just a few notes here.
I started with a presentation to the European Chamber of Commerce in Beijing, as chronicled in this LinkedIn post by a colleague, making that case that gravity favours an improvement in (already strong) EU-China trade relations. I did this from the 76th floor of the World Trade Centre tower; the view of nearby helipads was impressive.

Later that evening a group of friends workshopped a Chinese name for me. I had previously settled for the phonetic but cumbersome 尼古拉斯·亨利·懷特 – Nígǔlāsī Hēnglì Huáitè, 尼古拉斯 for short. But the dinner group determined that I should instead adopt the Chinese name 白怀珂, Bái Huáikē – 白 means “white”, which is fair enough, and it also looks a bit like a TARDIS; and 怀珂 sounds a bit like “white” but also suggests that I have a heart like a semi-precious stone. I can live with that, and have started trying to sign it when needed.

I also got a tour of the Xiaomi electric vehicle factory, where the new SU7 and YU7 are made, one every 76 seconds; they can go from 0–100 km/h in 3.23 seconds and have a top speed of 253 km/h (157 mph); the battery has a range of 760 km and can recharge 620 kilometres (390 mi) of range within 15 minutes. Robots scurry around the factory floor assembling cars, playing music to themselves. I felt that I had seen the future. (Disclosure: I have been advising Xiaomi since 2021, but on their phone handsets not their EVs.)

In Chengdu, it was a little alarming to be confronted with myself at slightly more than full scale at the convention entrance.
(Will make sure they get the memo next time that I am now 白怀珂 in Chinese.)
The centre was, again, beautifully located beside a lake, this time south of the city (in 2023 it was northwest). This is the view from the hotel; the small white triangles are the tents in the dealers area of the convention.

The Whovians were out in force.

The science fiction museum had some fascinating exhibits, including a battered first edition of Cat Country:

The convention opening ceremony as usual featured a children’s choir:
I took careful note of the Galaxy Awards ceremony in the evening. As far as I understood it, a preliminary nominations list was made by readers of Science Fiction World, and a panel of judges then chose the winners. Twelve of the judges appear to be men, with one woman.

There were 23 categories, including some pretty market-related ones like “Best Distribution Chain” and “Best Electronic Sales Platform”. The loveliest was “Best Student Science Fiction Society”, won by the Parallel Universe Science Fiction Club of Donghua University in Shangha, presented by Liu Cixin (who was made to work hard that evening).

They invited all of the nominated student clubs to join them on stage.

In more familiar categories, Best Translated Related Work was jointly won by Rob Wilkins’ Terry Pratchett: A Life in Footnotes and Ursula K. Le Guin’s Words Are My Matter, Best International Distributor went to Neil Clarke. The Best Novel award went to Golden Peach, by up and coming writer Yang Wanqing. I have not been able to get a text version of the full list of winners, but I can give you graphics in Chinese here and here.
Unfortunately I came down with a stomach bug that evening and missed much of the rest of the convention, struggling in on the Saturday for a symposium on different ways of running science fiction events with Wu Xiankui and Esther MacCallum-Stewart, but otherwise spending the day in bed. The next day was my last day, and I had a very convivial lunch in central Chengdu with the Whovians, but didn’t feel like eating much.

Many thanks to Sara Chen and her team for the organisation of the event. Once again I felt stimulated and enlightened by my visit to China, and hope it won’t be long before I go back.