This book concludes that Bai identity is a new form of group affiliation,new in the sense that the Bai have entered the new world of a clear-cut Baizu category, but it is not completely unfamiliar to them.

The Bai is one of the 55 ethnic minority groups (shaoshu minzu) officially demarcated in China between the 1950s and 1979. This study analyses the growth of Bai identity since the 1950s and the constructed or imagined difference with other peoples, and how the Bai have embraced the state-granted label, acted on it and experienced it emotionally, practically and politically. This book explores how Bai identities are produced and reproduced in-between the social-historical layerings of Bai/state, Bai/Han and Bai/Yi relationships.

Many writers have examined the relationship between the state and ethnic minorities in southwest China. They argued convincingly against the portrayal of ethnic minorities as passive victims in the state enterprise of representation (Tapp 1986, 1995, 2002; Schein 1989, 2000; Harrell 1990, 1995, 1996, 2001; Litzinger 1995; Cheung Siu-woo 1996; Oaks 1998; Jonsson 2000; Bradley 2001 and Mueggler 2002). Others warn that emphasising resistance may fall prey to false dichotomising the state and the society (e.g. Sara Davis 1999, Mackerras 2004). My work extends such literature in the ethnography of self-representation and self-definition of Bai Identity. In line with these writers, I shall illustrate how the making of Bai ethnicity expresses the Bai identities, manipulates and reifies the Bai ethnic label designated by the NECP in daily life.

Regarding representations of the Bai in Dali, Beth Nortar's (1999) dissertation provides an excellent starting point, yet her focus on historical Chinese representations undermines the subjectivity of the people under study. Nortar's later articles (2000, 2008) convincingly teased out the constructive nature of Bai identity by various parties (see also Mackerras 1988 and D. Wu 1989, 199411991]). My study builds on their studies through bringing together a broader range of subject matters where identity and ethnic labels interact by drawing on my extensive fieldwork in Dali between 1999 and 2005. I have "maintained a balanced yet critical attitude" (Examiner's comments) towards sources. I have also shown "sensitivity towards the actions and views of the various relevant parties,and abstaining from extremist dichotomies one finds in some of the literature about China, especially in that about its ethnic minorities." (Examiner's comments).

This book challenges a hegemonic and unilateral view of Chinese minzu by contextualising how the Bai people use the state-granted label to conceptualise Bai identities through historical studies, recent memories,religious practices and an annual social event. Most significant among my findings is the role of the legitimate name Baizu, which fits well into a China context by being politically correct, economically valuable, and historically embedded in local social life. The label Baizu has become a symbolic diacritic, which sets the basis for the sustainable reproduction of Bai identities based on features which are not necessarily ethnically distinctive but become so due to the legitimate label. And the Bai have utilised it as a manageable social and political entity for the expression of personal or collective identities under a projected monolithic and homogenous Bai Identity.

This book concludes that Bai identity is a new form of group affiliation,new in the sense that the Bai have entered the new world of a clear-cut Baizu category, but it is not completely unfamiliar to them.

List of Tables and Figures

Illustrations of Bai Social Life

Preface

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Abbreviations

Chapter One Contextualising the Bai and the Research

Chapter Two The Making of Minzu and its Conceptual Implications

Chapter Three The Politics of Local Scholarly Making of the Bai

Chapter Four Partial Identity and the Different Degrees of Bai-ness

Chapter Five Identity Manifested in Religious Practices

Chapter Six Negotiating Interpretations and Identity-Making in an Annual Social Event: Gua sa na

Chapter Seven Ethnic Identities under the Tourist Gaze

Chapter Eight Becoming Ethnically Distinctive

Glossary

Tables and Figures

Illustrations of Bai Social Life

Appendix 1: Bai Characters on Unearthed Tiles

Appendix 2: Poster for gua sa na west Town, 2005

Appendix 3: Web Sources and Printed Publications for gua sa na stories

Appendix 4: Gua sa na Income in Sunshine Village Temple, 2005

Bibliography