Between Marginality and National Unity: The Flourishing of Minority Cinema in Early Communist China (1949-1966)

The main topic of my paper originated from my past experiences living in a region with a mixed ethnicity population. As a Han ethnic born in Urumqi, ethnic minorities such as Uyghurs and Kazakhs were part of my community as I grew up. Later, when I moved out of Xinjiang, I found that most people around me had a slightly different yet overall similar impression of the minorities compared to mine. Therefore, when considering the topic of the paper, I sought an aspect and medium through which I could research and discuss the development of the impression of ethnic minorities in China. In the end, I decided to focus on minority films, and The Visitors in the Icy Mountain was the first one I reviewed, as it is set in Xinjiang. Then, I moved on to other minority films also produced by the Changchun Film Studio, such as Liusanjie and Wuduojinhua. Despite the applauding comments these films receive from general viewers today, I wanted to explore how they have caused long-term influences on minorities. To do this, I looked through past reviews, records, and even criticisms of them. One main criticism of minority films is that they are overly romanticized and intended to reinforce Han-centralism. However, as I examined more past newspaper articles, magazines, and interview transcripts, I realized that the production groups conducted extensive research on the minority groups to create the films. This led me to question whether the intention of the films was merely to convey Han-centralism, especially since the minority customs were not presented in a simply romanticized form. Accordingly, I created this paper to extend and elaborate on the ideas I concluded from my research.