BAI Yudong is a professor of Lanzhou University. He is also the director of the Research Centre for Silk Road Civilizations and Regional Development. He received his Doctor degree from Osaka University, Japan, and worked as a postdoctoral fellow of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. He is the chief expert of the National Social Science Fund of China's major bidding project "Collection and Research on Ethnic Monuments from the Northern Dynasties to the Sui and Tang Dynasties" (18ZDA177) and editor-in-chief of The Silk Road Historical and Linguistic Research Series. He is mainly engaged in the study of historical languages, unearthed documents and inscriptions in inland Asia during the Middle Ages. He has published more than 80 academic papers in journals such as Historical Research and Ethno-National Studies in China and Journal of History and The Journal of the Research Department of the Toyo Bunko in Japan. He has been awarded the Award for Foreign Special Researchers by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Outstanding Achievement Award for Postdoctoral Research in Chinese Social Sciences, Second Prize of the Outstanding Achievement in Ethnic Studies by National Ethnic Affairs Commission, and the Second Prize of the Eighth Outstanding Achievement in Scientific Research (Humanities and Social Sciences) of Higher Education by the Ministry of Education.