The preface begins with the unfolding of “self-identifying talk” （Marcus 2006） about some of my fieldwork encounters in order to introduce where and how the research originates and was conducted. This chapter will introduce the Bai people under study，how the Chinese population got to know of the Bai，how they are represented in the literature，and what the state did with the Bai in the 1950s. Then I will account for two fundamental references that have shaped and legitimised the Bai today：data from local history which has been an important source of Bai identities，and the National Ethnic Classification Project （NECP） that demarcated in the 1950s those we call the Bai today.