Second Circular

July 20, 2005

Dear Colleagues,

The Fourth International Conference on Yi Studies: “Bimo Practice, Traditional Knowledge, and Ecosystem Sustainability in the 21st Century” will take place from August 19-24, 2005 in Bapu Town, the county seat of Meigu County, Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan. At the same time, two other events will be taking place in Meigu: the Second Yi Bimo Cultural Fesitival and “Humans and Nature—Meigu in Poetry: an International Writers’ Festival. The conference committee has received papers or abstracts or requests to participate from nearly 100 scholars from over ten countries, including the United States, France, Germany, Spain, Peru, Canada, the Czech Republic, Japan, Australia, and India, as well as from the provinces and cities of Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou, Guangxi, Hubei, Beijing, and Shanghai, and from Taiwan. After discussion by the conference committee, we have also invited some distinguished guests to participate in conference roundtables.
On the eve of the conference, on behalf of the organizing unit, the Institute of Ethnic Literatures of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and the host unit, the People’s Government of Meigu County, we are sending this second notice of the conference to all invited participants. Please pay close attention to the matters below

1. The question of Yi language translation
In keeping with the fact that the conference is being held in Meigu, and in order to embody the basis of the conference in traditional knowledge and the particular character of its international exchange, we have decided to translate the titles of the conference, the major themes, the titles of the papers, and the names and biographical information of all participants into the Liangshan Nuosu Yi language and print these elements trilingually in Yi, Han and English in the Conference Handbook. We have engaged Professor Qiesa Vunyo, Vice-Chair for the Yi language office of the National Bureau of Ethnic Languages and Translation in Chengdu to take on the responsibility for Yi language translation for this conference, and have received much help and support from this specialist. We want to express our heartfelt thanks to Professor Qiesa and his co-workers.
At present, because we are holding the conference in the Liangshan area, because the Liangshan Yi Writing system, as set out in the Outline of Standard Yi Writing is officially approved by the State Council and officially used in Yi areas of Sichuan, and because at present only the Liangshan Yi writing system as set out in the Outline of Standard Yi Writing has been configured for computerization, we are only able to use this system in the official correspondence for this conference, and regrettably cannot translate conference materials for general distribution into Yi writing systems for other areas. We ask for your understanding in this matter.
In implementing this translation policy, we are responding to the following issues: 1) Yi scholars who use both Yi and Han names; 2) foreign scholars or scholars of other nationalities who have Yi names; 3) transliteration of the names of Han scholars, scholars of other ethnic groups, or foreign scholars according to their Han name or their name in their native language; 4) for scholars who do not send Yi names by the deadline below, we will transliterate names according to the information given in the conference registration form.
We request that all conference participants who have not done so already, send your own Yi language name to the Beijing conference organizers at iel-digital-studio@cass.org.cn before July 25. You may use Yi script, phonetic transcription of Han characters, or Yi language pinyin.

2. Making up the conference handbook
The handbook for this conference will be produced in Beijing according to international standards. It will contain the following elements:
a) The history of Yi Studies Conferences and the origin of the present conference
b) The composition of the preparatory committee, the scholarship committee, and the conference affairs committee
c) The conference schedule and panel assignments, including the chair, discussant, and presenters for each panel
d) Abstracts of individual Presentations with authors’ biographical information
e) An index of conference participants
f) An address list of conference participants with affiliation, postal address, email account, and phone/fax numbers.

3. Conference passes
Presenter badges and special guest badges will be issued to all invited participants at the time of registration; conference workers will have staff badges. These badges will constitute passes to all conference events, will be printed in Yi, Han, and English, and come with a cord for wearing around the neck. They will provide entrance to conference sessions, meals, field trips, and other special activities.

4. Conference paper CD
In the past few days, several foreign scholars have raised the question of whether they need to bring copies of their papers to the conference, and if so how many? This is partially in response to the 3rd International Conference in Shilin, where participants brought over 100 copies in order that every participant could have a complete set. With regard to this question, the conference committee has considered the following:
a) There are nearly a hundred papers (99 scholars including 6 co-authored papers; if we add non-paper participants and specially invited guests, each participant would have to bring about 150 copies; we considered that this would create a lot of trouble especially for people traveling long distances. In addition, nine foreign scholars are already in China, many of them conducting fieldwork in places where it is difficult to contact them. So we are not requesting that presenters carry papers with them; if you want to bring paper copies to pass out, do so at your own discretion and bring however many you want. The Conference Committee will not take any responsibility for distribution of paper copies.
b) In order to insure the smooth and timely operation of the conference, the conference committee has decided to include all submitted papers (or abstracts for those whose papers are not submitted by the deadline below), along with the material in the Conference Handbook, in a CD version that will be given to all participants. The Meigu County Government has agreed to pay the cost of having these produced in Beijing. The Conference Committee feels that such a CD version will have value both as a memento and as a scholarly record of the conference.
c) In order to protect the intellectual property rights of all participants, these materials will be produced in a read-only .pdf format. If there are scholars who still do not wish their materials to be included in the CD, please inform the Conference Committee by the deadline below, or reply directly to this email.
d) Because our schedule is very tight at present, we are requesting those who have not yet sent papers to do so, in Word format, to iel-digital-studio@cass.org.cn as soon as possible. Please be mindful of the fact that, in addition to putting these papers on the CD, the organizing committee needs to send every paper to its panel chair and discussant, in order that they can read them ahead of the conference and prepare appropriate remarks.
e) If complete papers are not submitted by July 25, only English and Han abstracts and biographical information will be included in the CD.
f) The conference committee will do its best to produce the CD before the conference. But because only about half the papers have been submitted so far, if we have not received at least 2/3 of the papers by July 25, we will produce the CD after the conference in order to have a more complete collection of papers.

5. Conference volume
Because we have received 94 papers we will not be able to include all papers in the published volume to be compiled 6 months after the conference. After the conference, the scholarly committee will select a certain number papers to be included in the conference volume, whose length will be about 350,000-400,000 Chinese characters (equivalent to about 200,000-250,000 English words). This conference volume will be published by Guangxi People’s Press in March, 2006, in time for the National Book Exhibition. Authors of papers selected for the volume will be given the opportunity to revise, but the deadline for final submission will be November 30, 2005.

6. Conference registration
Conference registration will be done simultaneously at the Xichang contact point and the Meigu Government Hotel. Most scholars will probably report at Xichang, but others may choose to go directly to Meigu from Ebian or Leibo.
Scholars should plan to arrive in Xichang before the 19th of August; they may register at the Liangshan Nationalities Research Institute from 8:00 a.m. on August 18 to 10:00 a.m. on August 19. On August 19, the conference committee will provide complementary bus service to Meigu.
Scholars proceeding directly to Meigu should arrive by 8:00 p.m. on August 19, and should register at the Meigu County Government Hotel lobby.
For further registration information, please consult the supplement to the letter of invitation.

7. Return transportation
Xichang and Meigu members of the conference affairs committee will be happy to arrange return air or train tickets. If you need a ticket to be arranged in advance, please send the following information by fax or phone to the Xichang or Meigu organizing committee: name, ID card or passport number, departure point and destination, route, date, and flight or train number if you have a specific preference. The deadline for making return reservations is August 16. For contact information, please see the supplement to your invitation letter.

8. Exhibition of scholarly materials
This conference will provide an exhibition space for scholarly materials, including journals, books, or other works concerned with Yi studies. We invite all participants to bring their own or collective monographs, edited volumes, translations, editions of traditional texts, reference works, pictorial books, DVD/VCD/CD format works, videotapes or other materials to be displayed at the conference. After the conference, works will be returned to those who brought them, or if desired can be donated to the collections of the Meigu Bimo Culture Research Center.

Thank you for your support and cooperation

The Conference Committee of
the 4th International Conference on Yi Studies