This article presents some reflections that emerged in the process of making a video about the tradition of Chinese dances in the Aconcagua Valley, central area of Chile. The idea is to address in depth this tradition, its history, its social and religious function, its aesthetics, its conservation mechanisms, its possible continuity or disappearance. The film mentioned in the text, along with showing the beauty of tradition, exhibits its problems. Like old people’s concern about the low number of young Chinese, or the disrespectful, to say the least, way that some priests treat the Chinese, the feeling of horror and helplessness produced by the arrival at the parties of the Chinese of batucadas groups who believe that a Chinese party is a carnival, or of the sonorous irruption that means the presence at the dancing parties, a tradition alien to central Chile. On the other hand, the article discusses the process of making a documentary, which highlights the relationship of friendship, of intimacy that should exist between filmers and filmed.