Chinese Vampire. The Chinese Vampire was created by Yeung Kung Leong (Charlie, Chinese Scientist, Chinese Thief, Fourth Madam Lu) and appeared in the Chinese film Wuyi Jiangshi (1936). A father dies, leaving an unclear will, and the two sons fight over the inheritance. The older brother sets a trap and burns the younger brother to death and then throws his body into the sea. The following midnight the younger brother comes back to life as a vampire and kills his murderous brother.
The Chinese film industry, which produced numerous interesting films under heroic conditions in the 1930s, often as the Japanese bombing could actually be heard from the studios themselves, reacted to the burgeoning power and influence of Hollywood by creating specifically Chinese takes on various American films. The popularity of Topper led to Cha Li Yu Xie Qing Gui; The Maltese Falcon led to Chuangshang Renying; and the various monster movies like Dracula and Frankenstein led to Chinese films like Wuyi Jiangshi and the later Guiwu Jiangshi (1939), which made use of native Chinese monsters to make monster films for the Chinese film-going public. (The Indian film industry worked the same way, for what that’s worth, and during the same years, less threatened by invasion but having to deal with British obstructionism).
Someone needs to write a thorough history of the Chinese (and Indian) film industry from those years, not stinting on the early years, when films toured the countryside in horse- and ox-drawn carts and when the lack of money (as always seems to be the case in film) led to exceptional daring and cleverness on the part of the filmmakers. Such a history would be an eye-opener for the casual fan as well as the expert, I think, and would give Westerners a new appreciation for what the Chinese were doing.