Chinese Atrocities against Uyghurs Addressed in New Sci Fi Novel

USA Wire ^ | August 15, 20902 | staff

[KodyVeiga]

Any science fiction fans out there?

Interesting article about a new scifi book dealing with the Chinese genocide against the Uyghurs. Sounds like the author is a conservative Catholic.

[KodyVeiga]

A new science fiction novel addressing the ongoing Chinese genocide against the Uyghurs has attracted buzz as a potential Hugo Award nominee in 2023.

Andrew Gillsmith’s “Our Lady of the Artilects” is primarily an exploration of the fuzzy boundaries between science and faith and the dangers of transhumanism. Set in the 23rd century, the story pits a largely Christian sub-Saharan Africa against a fading Chinese state that has used brutal repression to retain its power. In the future, Christians and Muslims work together against secularized “Economic Zones” in North America, Western Europe, and China. Gillsmith gets deep into political and Vatican intrigues as the Roman Catholic Church and China work out the details of rapprochement following a genocide and a 50-year cold war.

In Gillsmith’s narrative, the genocide of over 100 million Chinese Christians was the follow-up act to the present genocide against the Uyghur Muslims of Xingjiang. One of the main characters—a Sufi Shaykh named Ilham Tiliwadi–is a descendent of Uyghur refugees.

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Human rights organizations estimate China has arrested over one million Uyghurs against their will in a vast network of “re-education centers” and sentenced hundreds of thousands to prison terms in recent years. China denies any claims of human rights violations in Xinjiang. Following the recent publication of the Xinjiang Police Files, the Chinese government stated that the calm and prosperity delivered to Xinjiang due to its anti-terrorism actions were the best answer to “all sorts of falsehoods.”

Xinjiang is home to over 12 million Uyghurs, almost all of whom are Muslims. The Uyghurs speak their own language and consider themselves culturally and ethnically comparable to other Central Asian nationalities. Uyghur activists say that China is arresting Muslim religious figures, outlawing religious rituals in the region, and demolishing mosques and graves, all while conscripting Uyghurs into re-education and forced labor camps. Sophisticated surveillance systems have been deployed in all Uyghur areas, leading researcher Darren Byler to call this the world’s first “high tech genocide” in his recent book, “In the Camps.”

A Showdown in Chengdu?

Last year, the members of Worldcon—the largest science fiction fan organization in the world—voted to host their 2023 convention in Chengdu, China. Gillsmith’s novel is currently #1 on Goodreads’ list of candidates for the Hugo Award, the sci-fi community’s most prestigious award.

If Gillsmith’s novel continues to win accolades and ends up on the organization’s Hugo Award ballot, it could set up a showdown between the science fiction community and the Chinese government. Gillsmith has also been openly critical of bestselling author Cixin Liu (“The Three-Body Problem”) in a 2019 interview with The New Yorker in which he expressed support for China’s policies towards the Uyghurs, which could definitely add an additional wrinkle to Worldcon.

Andrew Gillsmith is a science fiction writer whose education in religious studies and passion for the cyberpunk genre have helped inform and mold his storytelling style. Fittingly, his first job out of school was delivering mail for Jeff Bezos when he was still selling books via Listserv. Since then, he’s worked in several interesting roles, including head of the customer experience for the Kentucky Derby, leader of a proposed hyperloop project in the United States, head of data analysis for a healthcare company, and SVP of sales for a digital marketing agency. He currently works in publisher development in the programmatic advertising space.

Andrew lives in St. Louis, Missouri, with his wife Cheryl and their two young sons. His new novel, Our Lady of the Artilects, is available for purchase on Amazon.

[Seruzawa]

No Hugo for him.

[TexasFreeper2009]

I have no sympathy for Muslims anywhere. The Earth would be better off without them, because their hate and inability to live peacefully alongside ANYONE else makes them presence always troublesome.

[Flick Lives]

I have no sympathy for Muslims anywhere. The Earth would be better off without them, because their hate and inability to live peacefully alongside ANYONE else makes them presence always troublesome.

—

So I guess I’ll mark you down as ok with enslavement in the 21st Century.

[mac_truck]

Welcome to FreeRepublic...what atrocities are those?

[TexasFreeper2009]

You can mark me down for supporting anyone who has had enough of the Muslims and is willing to do whatever is necessary to bring them to heal.

[PGR88]

I don’t GAF either. Besides, we have our own leftists here in America that need to be dealt with.

[vladimir998]

thanks for the info

[Flick Lives]

Your ok with slavery. Got it.

[GingisK]

Well, that will teach them a thing or two.

[TexasFreeper2009]

was thinking more like eradication.

[Flick Lives]

Slavery. Extermination. Not very Christian of you.

[TexasFreeper2009]

I just see it as self-defense.

Muslims don’t want to live peacefully alongside others.

[Flick Lives]

I see it as someone with a broken soul. I’ll pray for you.

[NorseViking]

What enslavement? Before these stories there were widespread stories of Islamic terrorism in China. Instead of killing Muslims, like others do, the Chinese are reintegrating them into society. What is wrong with it?

[TexasFreeper2009]

https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/4086687/posts

then you will be their next victim, just like these poor Christains.

[Flick Lives]

Ah yes. It’s not slavery, it’s reintegration. The CCP has a sordid history of forced “reintegration” built on a pile of millions of dead. You obviously know zero of the Cultural Revolution.

[jobim]

Solzhenitsyn in the Gulag Archipelago tells from first-hand experience and from witnesses and from research how Stalin’s government bureaucracy arrested, imprisoned, enslaved, experimented upon, and murdered a large percentage of the Russian people.

Uyghurs are subject to this same treatment by the Chinese Communist government. No Christian, indeed no civilized man, could condone such inhumanity.

[NorseViking]

What is your proposal?:)

[jobim]

It’s just an opinion I have void of action. Like most I have as I read through the stories of the day. What can one do about any of it?

I have found through reading and study at this late stage of my life that I reject the basis for all our wars (with the exception to WWII exclusive of fire-bombing Germany & Tokyo and use of the nukes), including the Civil War. I am not a pacifist, but now see that unless we use our military for strictly defensive reasons, we violate St. Augustine’s Just War theory, as well as George Washington’s exhortation to avoid foreign entanglements.

The Uyghurs, like the falun gung, like the Tibetans, are all victims of Chinese totalitarianism. We might assist in little ways, and we pray for them. Taiwan too. I lived there and have a love for that place and people. But they will be swallowed it seems, too. Ultimately, we can expose evil without taking steps militarily to stop it.