There are reliable reports circulating via email that the major International Congress on Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences to be held in July in Kunming has been postponed. At present the website for the conference does not have any mention of this. As one colleage commented, perhaps the conference – in which ethnic minority issues would, no doubt, feature prominently – was too close to both the Olympics and Tibet. Many anthropologists working on mainland southeast Asia were planning to attend the conference.

Does anyone have clear information on what is going on, and why?