Abstract:  As a branch of anthropology, visual anthropology is mainly involved in image creation and research. Since the birth of the discipline, it has established wide and profound connections with image expressions of ethnic minorities, marginal groups or traditional knowledge across the world. Contemporary visual anthropology usually follows a set of relatively standard academic norms in producing ethnographic films, to ensure their academic value, ethical boundaries and social responsibility. It opposes “internal oritentalism” and “selforientalism”, advocates the “hostpositioned films” in which ethnic minorities express themselves, and highlights the role of ethnic community context in which the multiple values of image works are revealed, including ethnic identification, cultural inheritance and cultural reflection. In short, visual anthropology places more emphasis on the rights of cultural holders while opposing image exploitation by outsiders, so it acts as a “dose of sobriety” in the whole national systme and film & TV creation and research.

Key words: Key words： visual anthropology, ethnic films and TV programs, film noumenon, hostpositioned films, cultural subjectivity