Yanbo Guan was born in June 1967 in Xuanwei, Yunnan Province. He graduated from the Department of History of Yunnan University in 1989 and was assigned to the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in the same year. From March 2002 to March 2003, he was a visiting scholar in the International Development Department of Nagoya University, Japan. In July 2004, he received a doctor of history from the Graduate School of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. The main research direction is Chinese national history, national historical geography, especially the study of social history and culture of ethnic groups in southern China.

• Historical Tracing: The Accumulation and Development Origin of Subject Data of Ethnic Geography in China.- Ethnic Geography: Object, Content, Concept, Disciplinary System, Method.- Great Migration of Eurasian Nationalities: Regional Differentiation and Spatial Changes in Ethnic Communities.- Nation and Nature: Ethnic Ecological Views on the Relationship Between Man and Land.- Geographical Background of the Formation, Development and Evolution of Ethnic Culture.- Ethnogeography in China.