Hero

[The Mole]

Originally Posted by darry

Do you have any more info on this? China has maintained a film archive from as early as the 30’s.

I don't have any detailed info. But proper long-term storage of films, especially of those cheaply produced by independent ventures to make a quick buck in the cinemas, has always been reported to be rather poor in territories like Hong Kong, Taiwan, the Philippines and China.

And having a national film archive does not prevent films going m.i.a. completely because a national archive does not provide storage for every film ever produced in a country. They often only take in those films that are regarded as being worthy of preservation. In Germany we have the Bundesfilmarchiv since 1952. Nevertheless hundreds of small, not widely known films from the last seventy years are forever lost (at least on film, if you're lucky there are still broadcasting tape masters for TV) because of missing documentation, materials being accidentally discarded as trash, companies being liquidated and their film stocks being misplaced, negatives being stored in wet cellars and what not.