Zhang Yimou, one of the most successful of Chinese auteur directors, has been criticized for his Orientalist tendencies, specifically for the exotic atmosphere that turns his films into Oriental spectacles for Western consumption. Yet criticizing Zhang for his supposedly self-Orientalist tendencies, I would suggest, is inappropriate in the context of the Fifth Generation films of the 1980s and 1990s. I argue that, since for the Chinese themselves this period had entailed a re-visioning of their relationship with culture, nature, and identity, it becomes imperative to replace the stereotyped, Orientalist binaries of East/West and self/other with greater insight into the cultural positioning of the Fifth Generation text itself and its production.