Abstract: As the visual culture enters the digital and video era, the "death of film" has become an increasingly contested issue in the field of the international image studies. In response to this ongoing international debate, this research takes as its object of study the "nostalgic videos" which have proliferated in China on the Internet. It begins with an analysis of two types of videos, which employ entirely different methods of visual presentation, namely, "a reworking of the old" and "online new creation". It then analyzes the film characteristic in the videos of picture collection and seeks to clarify how the special space of Internet impacts on the spectator' s indepth participation, reception and memory of video images. Besides, it tries to explain how this "power of focus" penetrates and expands in the online space, and hence evokes "collective memories" and creates a collective nostalgic atmosphere among certain groups of people. In the end, the article examines how the "post80s" generation, who are often under the pressures of modernity and who have no sense of security and belonging, takes nostalgic videos as a reasonable and much needed vehicle for symbolic and emotional consumption. 

Key words: online videos, nostalgia, film characteristic, the post80s, collective memory