Silent movies were made in other parts of the world, especially East Asia, for much longer than they were in America. I don't know all the reasons for the lagging transition, but one of the principal reasons in China was that while Shanghai studios had the necessary equipment for producing sound films, outside of the largest cities there were relatively few theaters which had the equipment to exhibit them. So China was making silents well into the 1930s, the last being released in 1938. Few of these silents exist today: in addition to the lack of preservation techniques, two civil wars and World War II (which for China began in 1937) took their toll. As a result, while an estimated 80% of the silents produced in the West have been lost, for China the figure is believed to be about 95%. In addition, it can be a real challenge to find many of the handful of silents which still exist, especially outside of China.
While its surviving print is missing most of a key scene, one Chinese silent that still exists is 1931's "Yijian Mei" 一剪梅 (A Spray of Plum Blossoms), based on Shakespeare's "Two Gentlemen of Verona," and directed by one of China's most prolific directors, Bu Wancang. It was also the third pairing of 1930s China's favorite on-screen couple, Ruan Lingyu and Jin Yan, although in this film they were cast as siblings, rather than the star-crossed lovers they usually portrayed. Instead, Jin Yan's love interest this time is Lin Chuchu, the real-life spouse of director Li Minwei.
