Abstract:  Through a critical review of the conceptual construction of the images of Chinese ethnic minorities, we can see the problems underlying the oversees research paradigms of Chinese cinemas such as “Chinese Language Cinema” and “Sinophone Cinema”, which are rich and complicated image practice on the premise of masking and negating the political conceptions of ethnic equality in new China. Therefore, it is essential to return to the United Front and class struggle which are the State and national discourse variations of the historical line. Be it the patriotic united front in the regions of ethnic minorities, the support to the Third World's nonalignment or the international aid, all is embodied in the same world pattern with the political perspective of class struggle. How to shed new light on the perspective in the current ethnic policies and international relations? Can the studies of ethnic minorities be divorced from the historical line and practical challenges? These are key questions to the film studies of ethnic minorities. Meanwhile, the paper examines the social and political significance of the documentaries of the ethnic minorities from the view of social development and communication, and revisits the complicated and diverse practice between “scientific documentary” and the “authenticity” the Party has required. Only by clarifying the above questions, can we renew the discussion of image democracy and the subjects of the cinematic history.

Key words: the portrayal of the images of the ethnic minorities, history and politics, rewriting the Chinese cinematic history