The BACS 2008 conference will be held at the University of Leeds Thursday 4th - Friday 5th September 2008. The main theme is: China: Nature and Humanity. ‘Humanity’ refers to human activity in the broadest sense, and ‘nature’ refers to interaction with the environment at all levels: physical, psychological, philosophical, artistic, etc. We invite individual scholars and panel organisers from both humanities and social science disciplines, researching China from the contemporary world back to classical times to join with us in addressing this theme. As usual, BACS is willing to consider papers on other topics relevant to the interests of BACS and its members. BACS promotes scholarship on all disciplines relating to China, both traditional and modern, and including China proper, other Chinese-speaking areas and the diaspora. For further details see BACS website at http://www.bacsuk.org.uk or contact president@bacsuk.org.uk to whom abstracts should be sent by 16th May.