A winding path to filmSourced
British novel. Japanese text.
Chinese silent film.
The 1926 Chinese silent film Lonely Orchid adapted a British novel through a Japanese translation and then a Chinese one. Its setting and plot were changed for Chinese audiences. Scholars disagree on precisely which British novel started the chain.
Each translation carried
the story somewhere new.
Summary / translation: Unbubly · CC BY-SA 4.0
Source and reuse details
Lonely Orchid · Wikimedia contributors
Adapted, summarized and translated from the source. Adapted text is also available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Reviewed: 2026-10-01