Yang Xiao
(????–)
The Chinese sf community came into Western notice in 1989, when Yang Xiao, then editor Science Literature, China’s preeminent prozine (later Science Fiction World) traveled by herself to Eurocon 1989 in San Marino, and bid to hold the 1991 conference of World SF: An Organization of SF Professionals in Chengdu, Sichuan.
Together with Xiang Jichun (arts editor of Science Literature) and Shen Zaiwang, Yang next attended ConFiction, the 1990 Worldcon in the Netherlands, where her bid won, over Poland and Yugoslavia. Malcolm Edwards reported that the 1991 WSF Conference Yang ran was the best to date, with over 300 SF authors and editors attending. That was the first Chengdu International Science Fiction and Fantasy Conference, now a biennial event.
Yang helmed Science Fiction World from its beginning in 1979 into the 2000s. She was able to champion the cause of sf, long considered a “bourgeois” genre in the People’s Republic, in part because she is the daughter of an influential Communist Party member. Today, due in no small measure to her efforts, sf is as popular in China as it is around the world, and her hometown is bidding for a Worldcon.
| Person | ????— |
| This is a biography page. Please extend it by adding more information about the person, such as fanzines and apazines published, awards, clubs, conventions worked on, GoHships, impact on fandom, external links, anecdotes, etc. See Standards for People and The Naming of Names. |
