Although Sinification and Westernization mean different things to the Han people, they are not clearly distinguishable to minorities in Yunnan mountains. Both aim at recruiting minorities into the market economy as well as the modern state system. These civilizing projects share similar concerns over capitalist/statist issues, such as mountain road construction, discursive image construction for minorities, ambivalence toward bilingual education and other issues. It appears that minorities in the yunnan mountains cannot completely avoid civilizing influences. Field interviews reveal, however, that sinification is by no means predominant. The responses from the minorities are too complicated to be expressed through the civilizing discourses. Not only does sinification not convey any fixed meaning, but minority identifications also shift over times. Ironically, the hybrid nature of the minority responses to sinifying projects have thus opened, not closed, new possibilities.