The history of Chinese documentaries began when photographers from Western countries came to China to shoot newsreels. At the end of the 19th century, foreign photographers photographed the Boxer Rebellion and the Eight-Nation Allied Forces, and at the same time took films that recorded the social life of China at that time. Later, in the early 20th century, newsreels were filmed on the funerals of Emperor Guangxu and Empress Dowager Cixi. During the 1911 Revolution in 1911, in addition to Japanese photographers who photographed "Xinhai Scales and Claws", Chinese photographers such as Zhu Liankui also photographed "Wuhan War" which reflected the Wuchang Uprising. Later, they also photographed "Wuhan War" which reflected the Second Revolution. Shanghai War". Around 1918, the Commercial Press shot some short documentaries based on current events and scenery: "European War Victory Parade", "The Fifth Far Eastern Games", "Nanjing Scenic Spots", "West Lake Scenery", etc. Around 1924, during the first Kuomintang cooperation, Sun Yat-sen attached great importance to documentary shooting. In the name of Generalissimo, he ordered relevant parties to provide cinematographer Li Minwei with work convenience. During this period, Li Minwei shot newsreels and documentaries such as "Record of the National Revolutionary Army's Sea, Land and Air Battle", and after Sun Yat-sen's death, he used the filmed materials to compile "A Thousand Years of Service". During this period, Soviet photographer Blum and others also photographed "The Great Flight and China's Civil War" and "Shanghai in 1927" in China. During the Anti-Japanese War, Chinese film workers walked out of studios and used handheld cameras to shoot many news documentaries of historical value, and cultivated a group of professional news documentary film workers through practical work. The China Film Studio affiliated with the Political Department of the Military Commission of the Nationalist Government, the Central Film Studio affiliated with the Central Propaganda Committee of the Kuomintang, and the Northwest Film Company successively produced news magazine films such as "Special Edition of the Anti-Japanese War" and "Records of the Anti-Japanese War", and documentaries such as "Lugou Bridge Incident", "Air Force Record", "Songhu Front", "The Great Victory of Northern Hunan", "Long Live the Nation" and "North China is Ours" have also brought new development to China's news documentary film industry.

In July 1953, China's first professional institution for producing newsreels and documentaries, the Central News Documentary Film Studio, was established in Beijing. In addition, the Chinese People's Liberation Army's Bayi Film Studio and other film studios also shoot a certain number of documentaries. The number and quality of news documentary film practitioners have been greatly improved, creative personnel have been trained among ethnic minorities, and a large number of newsreels and long and short documentaries have been produced. Such as "Millions of Troops March to the South of the Yangtze River", "The Birth of New China", "The Red Flag Rolls in the West Wind", "Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea", "The Great Unity of the Chinese Nation", "The Great Agrarian Reform", "Early Spring", "Millions of Serfs Stand Up" ", "The Great Changes in the Yellow River", "Horn of Africa", "In the Rapids", "Conquering the World's Highest Peak", "Song of the Pioneers", "Don't Let Time Go to Waste", "Japan We See", etc., Some of them have won awards at home and abroad. China's first color stage documentary was "Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai" filmed in 1953. After the 1970s, television rapidly developed and became popular across the country, providing a more timely means for broadcasting news documentary films and opening up a wider field. In addition to continuing to be shown in theaters, news documentary films also entered the TV screen in large numbers.

During this period, the "Chinese-made", "Taiwan-made" and private companies of the Taiwan Kuomintang system also took some news documentary photos. The more influential ones include "Traditional Town - Meinong", "Chinese Drama Art" and "Descendants of the Dragon", etc. Some film companies in Hong Kong have also shot documentaries such as "The Tragic War" that reflect China's Anti-Japanese War and the Pacific War. New documentary films are "marginal documentaries" that existed outside the system in the 1990s (excluding TV documentaries that operate within the national television system and exist in the form of columns, representing a top-down power and perspective). A new movement based on a reaction against traditional political style documentaries.

The new documentary film movement was initially promoted in an "underground", folk form and by sending to foreign film festivals. It was promoted through "automatic and free" communication methods such as VCD, DVD, and bar screenings. It is widely carried out among the people.

The new documentary film movement emerged in the late 1980s. It emerged as a straggler, or its emergence was completely unconscious. Wu Wenguang, who once worked at Kunming TV Station, took it with a hazy feeling. He set up a camera and pointed it at the "blind artists" around him, and "Wandering in Beijing" was born. In particular, the filming of the film spanned the political events of the late 1980s, which is particularly eye-catching. At the same time, Wu Wenguang's behavior also hints at the possibility of the existence of this kind of independent producer.

"No. 16 Barkhor South Street" by Duan Jinchuan, "Yin Yang" by Kang Jianning, "Old Man" by Yang Tianyi, "Beijing Danjiang" by Zhu Chuanming, "The Wind in Beijing is Strong" by Ju Anqi , Du Haibin's "Along the Railway", Wang Fen's "More Than One Unhappy", Zhao Liang's "Paper Planes", etc. These documentaries have emerged continuously in just a few years and have won numerous domestic and foreign documentary awards. . Many of the producers were making documentaries for the first time, and they were not professional documentarians. The emergence of these new documentaries seems to mark the arrival of an "amateur video era."

Different from the "New Documentary Movement" in the early 1990s, most of the documentary workers at that time, whether Wu Wenguang, Duan Jinchuan, Jiang Yue, etc., had a background working in television stations. They suffered from the inability to conduct real-life documentaries within the traditional system. Expression, that’s why I chose the path of independent production. Most of the current young documentary creators are not among the professional film and television practitioners. They are either students still studying in film schools (such as Zhu Chuanming and Du Haibin, who had not yet graduated when the film was made), or young people wandering in Beijing, or even He is a layman like Yang Tianyi who originally knew nothing about film and television production. The equipment they used to create, except for Ju Anqi who used a 16mm camera and a total of 20 minutes of expired black and white film, seemed a little more "professional", others relied on digital DV or even Super 8 home cameras to complete their work. own work. Although from a professional perspective, their works all have audiovisual defects to varying degrees, these new documentaries have shocked the international film world with the authenticity and originality of their film content. These awards are not only a tribute to these documentary directors, but more importantly, they convey the message that an ordinary person can become a director through his talent, perseverance, love for life and simple photographic equipment. A "real" documentary filmmaker. And most of the objects they focus on are individuals in daily life. For example, Wang Fen pointed the camera at her parents (leaving aside some of the ethical issues caused by doing so). The "new documentary movement" seems to have grown unprecedentedly. , it seems that there is a carnival of the "amateur video era" similar to the national fitness movement.