Zhang Yimou’s films can be basically divided into two dimensions of thinking: female cultural tradition worshiping female “yin”culture and with the land as the image, andmale cultural tradition worshiping male root culture and with “祖（ancestral ）(且)” as the image.Zhang’s pondering over and exploration into the two dimensions resulted in his two phases of creation with distinctive themes. In the first period, his films focused on females, taking the forms of eulogizing daughterly nature and maternity while negating and questioning the wifely nature, resulting in its absence. In the second period, his filmsfocused on males, taking the forms of suspending manhood, negating and questioning paternity and doubting the role as husbands, and worshiping male root culture featuring ancestral admiration on the level of deep cultural connotations. The twodifferent dimensions or perspectives were further reflected in the images of Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles directed by Zhang and demonstrated through the following five aspects: disclosing the core value of traditional Chinese culture by ancestral worship and cultivating a positive image of “father”; seeking and finding the external representation of Chinese folk culturesthrough Yunnan local “Nuo Opera” and the masks used in the opera; demonstrating the specific context of modern technological culture by ingenious photograph images; conducting comprehensive cooperation with Japanese performers and main producers and putting the individual cultural case in the perspective of the whole oriental culture. These five aspects integrated and interwove in Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles, indicating not only the strong return of Zhang’s artistic conception, aesthetic perspectives, technical thinking and personal memory, but also the transformation of Zhang’s film from external bursting, expansion and spreading to inward constraint, constriction, and endurance.
