May 7, 2008

A Major Anthropology Conference in China Faces Postponement

In what might be another sign of pre-Olympics tension in China, the International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences has warned its members that a major conference planned for July is likely to be postponed.

The association, which was formed in Brussels in 1948, meets every five years. This year’s meeting is scheduled for mid-July at Yunnan University, in Kunming, a city in southwestern China not far from Tibet. Kunming was the site last month of large demonstrations against the Tibetan independence movement and perceived anti-Chinese bias in the West.

On Tuesday the association’s Chinese affiliate wrote to the group’s international executive committee, saying that it had “encountered complex difficulties hard to resolve in its preparation work recently, which makes it impossible for us to hold the congress at the time originally planned.”

The executive committee has rejected the idea of a postponement, but it has not yet received a reply from its Chinese colleagues. “We still have no concrete information about the results of our plea not to postpone the congress,” wrote the association’s president, Luis Alberto Vargas, a professor of physical anthropology at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, in an e-mail message to The Chronicle today.

Mr. Vargas and other members of the executive committee declined to comment further, citing the delicacy of the situation.

The conference’s program includes a number of panels on potentially sensitive topics, including dozens of papers on ethnic and linguistic diversity and four papers specifically on Tibet.

The association’s newsletter published last month a May 2007 memorandum that outlined 20 points of agreement between the association and its Chinese affiliate, including an understanding that Chinese scholars would organize a conference panel titled “The Achievement of China’s Policy Toward Ethnic Minority Groups and Ethnic Administration.” —David Glenn

Comments

1. All the hotel rooms were converted into interrogation rooms, holding cells and torture chambers.

   — thee michelle gun marci    May 7, 08:37 PM    #

2. Thank you number 1 for your non-xenophobic, academically credible, and carefully considered response.

   What seems to be totally overlooked in all these debates is the disparity of world views between what can loosley be termed the ‘West’ and ‘China’. For the former, Tibet is a seperate country that should be respcted, for the latter, Tibet is a province of China through historical precedence (whether this is so, is a matter we will leave aside).

   China feels itself threatened by a rebellious movement, and acts in its own interests to quell this, even if this means overriding international standards of human rights.

   America, when it sees itself threatened, by an external force, also overrides human rights – Guantanemo Bay was declared to be outside the Geneva Convention, etc.

   We really need to see both sides in this debate if we are to get anywhere.

   So, please, a bit of intelligent, reasoned, diplomatic and informed discussion please. The opposite of what has filled most discussions here and in the press whenever the China-tibet issue (or India, etc.) comes up.

   — Liu Xiaoxian    May 8, 06:35 AM    #

3. Perhaps the meeting could be rescheduled and held in the Republic of China.

   — Joseph F Foster    May 8, 07:56 AM    #

4. Hi Liu Xiaoxian.
   Instead of discussing the views of China and the “West” on Tibet, it might be more fair to consider the views of the Tibetan people themselves. Most people do prefer to have a say in their own affairs and this is kind of difficult to do under a foreign dictatorship that brutally extinguishes free speech and public demonstrations.

   — JG    May 8, 11:00 AM    #

5. I agree fully with #4: ask the occupied country’s residents.

   Let’s change Tibet to Iraq; China to U Know Who. What do we get?

   “Seven out of 10 Iraqis want foreign forces to leave: poll
   Agence France-Presse
   Published: Monday March 17, 2008

   LONDON (AFP) – More than two-thirds of Iraqis believe US-led coalition forces should leave, according to a poll conducted for British television ahead of the fifth anniversary of the Iraq invasion.

   The ORB/Channel 4 News survey suggested that 70 percent thought multinational forces should withdraw…..
   (http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Seven_out_of_10_Iraqis_want_0317.html)

   Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

   — richard    May 8, 01:49 PM    #

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