Abstract: Since the 1950s, study of Bai folk songs in Yunnan Province has been closely related to special historical opportunities, solid field practice as well as policies and guidance of the state regarding literature and art at certain historical moments on the one hand, and to shifts of academic perspectives and the discourse direction characterized by a gradual shift from faithfulness to the original situation to reproduction of the original situation in study of Bai folk songs in Yunnan Province in the 21st century on the other. Meanwhile this study is undergoing a number of shifts: from material accumulation to theoretic innovation, from collective creation to individual interpretation, and from text to contextualization. As a result, sorting and categorizing study status of Bai folk songs in Yunnan Province at different stages become the key to understanding the inner fabric of Bai folk songs and even minority ethnic groups of Yunnan Province in general.

Key words: Bai folk song of Yunnan, field domain, life situation