"Our science fiction has reached the moment when we have to make a final resistance." 2010 March 2 1 5: 40 pm, an open letter entitled "Science Fiction World to Fantasy Lovers of All Countries" made the storm more violent! This post appeared on forums such as Douban. The post was signed as "All Staff of Science Fiction World", and the open letter questioned Chang Li, the president and editor-in-chief of Science Fiction World magazine, saying that "Comrade Chang Li, as the head of the magazine, did not pretend to know how to command blindly, did nothing or even run amok". This magazine with a history of 3 1 year has reached an "extremely critical crisis moment". "All editors may resign at any time, and the last flag of China science fiction will be. And demanded that Chang Li be removed from all his posts.
On the morning of 20 1 April1,Li Dayong, deputy secretary of the Party Committee of Sichuan Association for Science and Technology, said that on April 3 1, the party group of Sichuan Association for Science and Technology made a phased response to the collective request of the editors of Science Fiction World to revoke the post of president, decided to suspend the post of president and editor-in-chief of Chang Li, and asked Chang Li to cooperate with the publishing cooperation.
Although Science Fiction World is located in the southwest, it has a prominent reputation and is the science fiction magazine with the largest circulation in the world.
Many internationally renowned science fiction writers are fascinated by China because of this "niche magazine". British best-selling science fiction writer neil gaiman even regarded this magazine as "my home in China".
Yang Ping, who has now become a science fiction writer, still remembers that he came to the editorial department in 1996. Although no works were published at that time, "an old editor, Mr. Deng Jigang, accompanied me all over Chengdu just to express his concern for potential authors."
Fei Deuterium, who grew up in Chifeng mining area, Inner Mongolia, spent the whole middle school time accompanied by the science fiction world. Today, he is the main author of this magazine. In my hometown without a library, "this unexpected encounter completely changed my life".
To find out, China Youth Daily reporter went to Chengdu to investigate the contents of the open letter.
The first people interviewed were a group of angry editors. "We shouldn't wash our dirty linen in public, but we really can't stand it." One of them said.
The head of the airborne, editor-in-chief of No Discussion.
This open letter was published during President and Editor-in-Chief Chang Li's business trip to Taiwan Province Province. The letter demanded: "Revoke all positions of Comrade Li Chang in the magazine and re-elect a new leader with high professional quality who can lead the sci-fi world out of confusion!"
In fact, the brewing time of this open letter is as long as two months. At the end of last year, a "cover incident" became the fuse of "toppling the president". "Science Fiction World", which has always been covered by exquisite and original science fiction painting, was suddenly told by Chang Li that a photo of a magazine giving a lecture at Sichuan University was used as the cover. Editors suspect that this is another decision made by Li because of "saving money to the point of morbid", because the price of a normal cover painting is 2000 yuan. A fierce conflict broke out between editors and senior leaders. Chang Li still couldn't understand how his proposal caused such strong opposition.
Finally, this issue of the magazine returned to the routine before entering the printing house, and the cover was changed to a picture of science fiction painting, which showed that "diffuse particles scatter light to every corner of the city".
Because of "fear of the same thing happening one after another", an editor broke the teacup angrily at the editing meeting held in the teahouse. They decided to seek a solution through an open letter.
China Youth Daily reporter confirmed through interviews that some editors in this magazine still hold a wait-and-see attitude towards this public declaration of war, but most editors said that "the contents of the open letter are true" and "can represent our position".
Why did you finally choose to go to Taiwan Province Province, but also publish an open letter? "He often shows off his background, so we chose this opportunity," an editor told reporters. Chang Li's seven major actions are listed in the open letter, among which "Comrade Chang Li has repeatedly shown off his upper-level contacts in various occasions and meetings and warned employees who want to sue not to throw eggs at stones".
Editors' worries about the so-called backstage can be traced back to the winter of 2008. At that time, Qin Li, the magazine's "old man" and editor-in-chief, was suddenly transferred, while Li Chang was transferred from "National Defense Times" to "Science Fiction World" headed by Sichuan Association for Science and Technology without publicity, becoming the first "number one" who had never worked in this special niche magazine. An old cadre of Sichuan Association for Science and Technology was surprised: from 65438 to 0998, Chang Li was the head of Sichuan Science and Technology News under Sichuan Association for Science and Technology. "He was transferred because of his poor performance in the newspaper. After a turn, he still has the energy to return to the Association for Science and Technology."
Old readers began to notice a "subtle but dazzling" change in this magazine. The column "Science" was placed in Toyoji once every 10 years. Because editors believe that "only when we talk more about science can hard science fiction flourish". However, in the February issue of 20 10, the editors who had been stubborn for many years lost their strength, and the two-color version suddenly became an advertisement for video games. Although advertising with color pages is the general trend of popular magazines, science fiction fans begin to ask: "Why can advertising replace science?" The editor can't answer this question.
According to some old employees, Chang Li dissolved the original advertising department after he joined the magazine, and outsourced the magazine advertisements to Sichuan Star Giant Advertising Company. This advertising contract, signed by Chang Li alone, is called "insulting the country" because it stipulates that "all pages of the magazine can be occupied by advertisements". The staff of the science fiction world said that the boss of the advertising company was "a subordinate of Comrade Chang Li when he worked in the National Defense Times". Chang Li felt very wronged. He does not deny that the person in charge of the advertising company is indeed a friend, but he claims that before he entered the magazine, "there was no advertisement at all, and now the advertising company can give the magazine tens of thousands of dollars every month."
However, "real" employees are not satisfied with this answer. They calculated an account: the journal of Science Fiction World magazine, taking Science Fiction World as an example, "In the first three issues of 20 10, the magazine * * published 65,438 full-page color advertisements and 5 full-page black-and-white advertisements. According to the usual charging standard of magazines, the advertising income should be more than 600,000 yuan". "What is the difference between hundreds of thousands and tens of thousands?" The employees asked. Chang Li did not respond to this figure, but he said that if necessary, he could show the reporter the original contract. "It's just that the timing is not right now."
"They object because they occupy their space." Chang Li believes that this is the main reason why editors oppose advertising. Although he has never had editing experience in fantasy magazines, the editor-in-chief seems confident in the minds of employees. "His mantra is,' Don't discuss it if it's not necessary'."
When China Youth Daily reporter asked Chang Li for proof, he said, "The world of science fiction is a magazine. What needs to be discussed all day? " Immediately, he stressed that he actually "has no energy to attend editing meetings." However, this did not prevent him from putting forward many ideas of running a magazine that made editors dissatisfied, such as "let chinese editorials write novels, let translators and editors translate, and let Art editor draw pictures".
Although the fantasy world under the magazine is not the focus of Li's reform, it has also become the battlefield of concept confrontation. Chang Li once asked the magazine to "reject and publish with a quarter of the page number", which was rudely called "nonsense" by an editor. Finally, after editing for a long time, it was changed to Selected Sections, and the editor chose to resign and leave because he really could not agree with the leaders' concept of running a magazine.
However, what makes this group of sci-fi editors even more unimaginable is still behind.
"We have received calls from readers one after another, saying that we have seen our science fiction world magazine set up a new magazine on the newsstand." Only then did the editors realize that the signboard of "Science Fiction World" might have been stolen.
In order to find out how many "wild magazines" there are, they spent a lot of time. Finally, it is found that in addition to the original four publications of Science Fiction World, Science Fiction World Translation, Flying Fantasy World and Little Newton, there are five previously unheard-of publications with the words "Editor-in-Chief Chang Li" and "Science Fiction World Magazine Sponsored" in the market.
These magazines cover real estate, parenting, education and so on. After comparative analysis, the editors found that those with magazine serial numbers were still split into periodicals. Except Shangshu Shang, which was co-published, the other two issues of Shangshi Instant and Buying a House in Chengdu are "illegal publications" with the same serial numbers. They suspect that Chang Li privately rents or sells the serial number of Science Fiction World magazine.
Once this suspicion is confirmed, it means a serious violation of the national periodical regulations. Article 36 of the Regulations stipulates: "A periodical publishing unit shall not sell, lease or transfer its name and the serial number, name and layout of a published periodical."
Chang Li doesn't think this belongs to "one number and more periodicals". "We have been operating for some time, and this method is not original to me." He said, what's more, "that's our magazine. Who should I write if I don't write? "
On the eighth day after the open letter incident, these controversial publications were finally sent to the Sichuan Provincial Press and Publication Bureau. Since then, the reporter interviewed an official of the bureau. He said that "some publications have never been seen before", but whether it is illegal operation "needs further investigation" and refused to give a clear investigation schedule.
This is not the only department that has made slow progress in investigating this incident. Previously, Li Dayong, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of Sichuan Association for Science and Technology, Minister of Personnel and Discipline Inspection Commissioner, was one of the earliest officials to investigate this matter. But on the fifth day after the incident, when he was interviewed by reporters, he still "didn't know about Chang Li's business trip to Taiwan Province Province, and he didn't know when he would come back". This slow investigation efficiency puzzles editors and many loyal readers.
Excitement in bitterness, suffocation in insipid.
"Everything I do is for the world of science fiction." Chang Li insisted on defending himself, and the editor's accusation made him feel wronged.
In fact, in the past year or so, the quality and sales volume of this publication have not dropped significantly. Both editors and readers admit that its influence began to decline slowly a few years ago.
Someone conducted a "pure technical analysis". After investigation, "the circulation rate of each book in the science fiction world is 4~6 people". It is conservatively estimated that "in the past 20 years, 230 million people in China have read this magazine". Until today, when reading varieties are extremely rich, the monthly circulation of 6.5438+0.3 million copies is still maintained-however, compared with the distribution peak of 2006.5438+0, this has decreased by 280,000 copies.
This 3 1 year-old magazine is not the first time to encounter difficulties.
At the most difficult time in the science fiction world, only four editors were struggling. 1990, then editor-in-chief applied to hold the annual meeting of the World Science Fiction Association. After breaking through the resistance of domestic public opinion, this emaciated woman came to the Netherlands by train for 7 days and 7 nights from China, and finally defeated Poland at the annual meeting in The Hague, and won the right to hold the 199 1 annual meeting. From then on, the world knew that China had a science fiction magazine.
In such a difficult time, editors still insist on holding a pen meeting at least once a year to meet the author. The second manager still remembers that he was frozen in the train station all night, but only received two "unknown authors". Even so, four editors and seven or eight authors "crowded in the guest house for a pen meeting".
1997, the science fiction world held an international science fiction conference in Beijing, and the room where Tan Jie and later took over as editor-in-chief became the "science fiction fan meeting room". It is often five or six sci-fi fans who "chat late into the night, huddle together, sleep on the floor, get hungry before dawn, and turn the small refrigerator upside down."
In May 2009, Science Fiction World magazine was supposed to celebrate its 30th anniversary, but Tan Kai, who retired, "heard nothing in the club", and even the original annual pen meeting ran aground. The 66-year-old man was so anxious that he bought a big cake and sent it to the magazine. "I was particularly uncomfortable at the time. I can afford it, but I can't let it go. " He said. In May 2009, the whole editorial department of Science Fiction World was almost dull.
The outside world once suspected that this was a "collective explosion" because of the salary problem. However, an editor who participated in this incident revealed his income, saying that "after coming to the magazine, he reduced the editing expenses and column writing expenses of some editors, but at the same time increased the employee welfare expenses, including holiday bonuses and annual performance bonuses. In general, the editorial income actually increased slightly. "
"We stay in this magazine because of our ideals. If it was because of our salary, we would have left long ago. " A man who used to work in an advertising company, after editing a magazine, "halved his salary, only 1800 yuan." Here, it is not unusual not to adjust wages for several years. In the eyes of those who are familiar with them, these people who write and make up science fiction are almost "immaterial people". "As long as it doesn't hurt this magazine, everything can be tolerated."
The investigation is still going on in 2009, and no one can predict the final result. "What if Chang Li doesn't leave?" Someone asked. "Then we will leave." The editors said, "After all, freedom is not without cost."
But this is almost "the last territory of China's science fiction". 200 1, science fiction ocean closed; In 2003, Dreamer stopped publishing; In 2004, the Science Fiction World Illustrated Surprise Archives was closed. In 2005, Fantasy stopped publishing; In 2007, the World Science Fiction Expo closed; In 2008, fantasy was closed ... From 200 1 to 2008, China closed at least 10 fantasy magazines. The cause of death is mostly "unknown", and it is speculated that it is mostly because of "poor sales and insufficient funds". 20 13 fantasy world in the sky is closed. Today, the King of Science Fiction, founded in 1994, still persists, but it is limited to post office subscriptions. "Many sci-fi fans have never even heard of it."
Will Science Fiction World become a line on this "death list"? Wang Jinkang, a famous science fiction writer, said bluntly in an interview with the media: "This is obviously bureaucracy, and laymen lead experts ... If this continues, Science Fiction World will definitely be finished."
A reader who grew up with sci-fi dreams now makes such an appeal: "For me, Science Fiction World is not only a local publication, but also a precious place for me and countless people like me to fly their dreams in this hard-working and indifferent world. Take whatever you want. But ... please leave science fiction to science fiction. "
On the morning of September 26th, 2065438+00, Li Dayong, secretary of the Disciplinary Committee of Sichuan Association for Science and Technology, came to the magazine and announced the decision made by the party group of Sichuan Association for Science and Technology on August 30th to deal with Chang Li: Chang Li was officially removed from the post of president and editor-in-chief of Science Fiction World magazine, and Liu Chengshu, vice president, was in charge of the work.
On the evening of September 26th, 2065438+00, Science Fiction World magazine revealed on its Sina Weibo that the leading group of Sichuan Association for Science and Technology had been officially removed from the post of president and editor-in-chief of Science Fiction World magazine in Chang Li, and Liu Chengshu, vice president, was in charge of the work.