Abstract: A preference for the “Fifth Generation” is present in the researches of Chinese film history. Revisiting the “Fifth Generation” calls for discriminating historical facts and reflecting on historical views. To discriminate historical facts, it means rethinking the differences between narrow and broad sense of the “Fifth Generation”, analyzing the multiple influences on the “Fifth Generation” from the perspective of a holistic perspective, and fully understanding the complexities and contradictions within the “Fifth Generation”. To reflect on historical views, it means reflecting on the preference for the “Fifth Generation”  in “rewriting film history” and on the selectivity, purpose and instrumentality of the writing of film history. Only in this way can “the rewriting of film history” become convincing, capable of restoring history and a history with penetrating thought.

Key words:  the Fifth Generation, rewriting the 1980s, rewriting film history