Ni Zhen taught film theory at the Beijing Film Academy where in the 20 years between 1980 and 2000 he instructed those young film students who would become the directors responsible for that renaissance of Chinese cinema from the group that became known as the "Fifth Generation."
The graduating class, the fifth since the foundation of the Academy, was unusually talented and in addition had gone through and survived the destructive "Cultural Revolution." Ni writes of "the stark look, powerful emotions, national anxiety, and deep reflection that characterize early Fifth-Generation cinema," and there is no doubt that this new personal honesty was in part an answer to this "revolution," which Ni writes "turned a nation of one billion people into fanatical lemmings."
Every member of this graduating class was affected by revolution. Chen Kaige, to become the most famous graduate, often recalled that, as a child of 14, he rushed up with the rest of the crowd and attacked his father. Long after, he wondered why he had done this. Ni offers several speculations. "Was it because he was afraid of death? Yes, but there was something more terrifying. Having been driven out from but wanting to rejoin the masses who had collectively taken leave of their senses, he hurt his own gentle and dutiful father in order to be acknowledged as one of the group."