從英國殖民時期到獨立建國以來，馬來西亞的政治氛圍可以說是籠罩在族群政治的陰影下。在1969年族群衝突後，由馬來國族主義者主導的國家權力，開始積極制度化以族群為依據的各種政經和文化政策，以確保馬來裔在各領域佔有優勢地位。這種排他利己的政治思維，更延伸到馬來西亞的國家電影的定義以及電影政策上。在這國家電影話語的影響和政策的執行下，馬來西亞的電影工業基本上是由馬來裔所掌控，更以馬來創作者以及藝人為軸心。電影內容所再現的基本都是馬來裔的生活、文化和語言，馬來西亞的多元族群和多元文化可以說在電影銀幕上「曝光不足」。從1990年代末開始出現的數碼科技，卻「民主化」了馬來西亞的電影製作環境。數碼攝錄機的出現，以及較廉價的電腦剪接系統，賦予非馬來裔如華裔可以攝製自己的電影的機會。但在千禧年過後，馬來西亞電影市場和商業院線卻出現越來越多華裔拍攝的電影。這些電影成功吸引普羅觀眾而且票房不俗。華裔馬來西亞人所攝製的華語電影，也逐漸形成了「獨立電影」和「主流電影」並存的文化形態。本文試圖剖析，馬來西亞華語電影的出現和發展，除了科技變革和市場出現的因素，也和馬來西亞的國家電影話語和電影政策在近年來的改變息息相關。從獨立以來執政至今的國陣的政治霸權，在近年來出現裂痕和滑落，使到它必須調整各種政策 (包括電影政策)來贏回非馬來裔國民的支持。然而，馬來西亞充滿族群性偏差的電影文化的變化還是有點緩慢。馬來文化中心意識已經在這國土根深蒂固，要連根拔起談何容易。馬來西亞要建立一個真正容納多元文化和多元族群的國家電影文化，恐怕還有頗長的路途要走。

From British colonization era to independence nation building, Malaysia’s political atmosphere has swamped by the shadow of ethnic politics. After the violent ethnic clash in 1969, the state controlled by the Malay nationalist began to institutionalize several political-economic and cultural policies in order to ensure the Malays dominancy in all sector in the country. This discriminative political logic has extended to the discourse of Malaysia’s national cinema and the nation film policy. Under this discriminative national cinema and discourse and the implementation of the film policy, the local film industry is basically centered on the Malay talents and artists. Almost all the represented content of the films are regarding Malays’ life, culture and language. The multiethnic and multicultural sides of Malaysia nearly disappear in the mainstream cinema screen. The evolution of digital technology in the late 1990s has ‘democratized’ the film production environment in Malaysia. The availability of cheap and affordable digital filmmaking gadgets opened up opportunities for the ethnic minorities like Chinese to make their own films. But a decade after the millennium, more and more mainstream commercial films directed and produced by Chinese Malaysians were on the screening list of the local and foreign mainstream commercial cinemas. These films successfully attracted local audiences and achieved good box-office. This recent development changed the filmic scene of Chinese Malaysian cinema where alternative independent films and mainstream commercial films both play their roles in shaping the cultural appearance of this cinema scenario.This paper tries to argued that the availability and the development of these Chinese Malaysian films beside triggered by the advancement of technology and the availability of film market, they also related to the recent changes of Malaysia’s national cinema discourse and its film policy. The fracture and the shrinking of Barisan Nasional’s political hegemony have forced them to adjust their policies (include film policy) in order to win back the support of non-Malay Malaysians. Nevertheless, the changes of the nation’s discriminative cinema culture are rather slow. The Malay-centric sentiment has deep-rooted in this nation and it is rather difficult to deracinate from the soil of this nation. The building of a truly tolerant multi-cultural and multi-ethnic national cinema culture still has a long way to go.