New | Norway gives China 87-year-old Monkey King film thought to be long lost

Norway will hand to China a copy of “The Cave of the Silken Web”, a classic Chinese film that had long been believed lost, the National Library of Norway said Monday.

The delivery of the silent film from 1927 is expected to arrive in Beijing on Tuesday.

Diplomatic relations between both countries have been tense since Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo was awarded in 2010 the Nobel Peace Prize, decided by the Norwegian Nobel Committee.

After deciding to go through its stock of around 9,000 old films in 2011, the National Library of Norway found a nitrocellulose copy of “Pan si dong” -- its original Chinese title. It was the first film from the Asian country to be screened in the Scandinavian kingdom.

It seems to be the only existing copy.

The film, inspired by a classic Chinese novel by Wu Cheng’en called Journey to the West, was restored before being sent to the China Film Archive.