When Zhao Yongbin began to study musicals as a major at the Beijing-based Central Academy of Drama in 1995, he did not know what musicals were.

For the 30 students in Zhao's class, which was the first one to major in musicals in the country, musicals were a new art form.

In 1996, along with his classmates, Zhao had his first experience of performing in a musical, the Chinese version of The Cat Who Wished to Be a Man, one of the most popular musicals of Japan's Shiki Theatre Company.

Artists of the established Japanese company visited Beijing to help the students rehearse.

The musical, based on a children's novel of the same title by the late American writer Lloyd Chudley Alexander, was staged more than 40 times in 1996 at the Central Academy of Drama. The troupe also visited Japan later that year for three shows at the Shiki Theatre Company.

"For us, the musical was an art form that we had never seen in Chinese theaters then," recalls Zhao.

"The Cat Who Wished to Be a Man opened our eyes and helped us understand the art form. It laid a solid foundation for us - the first group learning and performing musicals in China."

Now, two decades or so later, the Chinese version of the musical will be reproduced and will kick off a national tour from Beijing in June.

Zhao, a teacher at the Central Academy of Drama and a director, in 1996 performed the lead character of Lionel, a cat who becomes a man with the help of a magician. He will direct the new production.

The musical will feature actors who performed in the 1996 version as well as young Chinese musical talents.

Chiyoki Yoshida, the president of the Shiki Theatre Company, came to Beijing recently to collaborate on the new performance.

"When those young Chinese students came to Japan in 1996, I was there. I watched their performance and was impressed by their passion," he recalls.

The Shiki Theatre Company, which was founded in 1953 by Japanese dramatist Asari Keita, 84, has eight theaters in Japan and stages more than 3,000 shows every year.

The Cat Who Wished to Be a Man is one of the most popular and most performed musicals of the company. So far, it has been staged more than 2,000 times in Japan.

The friendship between the dramatist Keita, his company and China, according to Yoshida, goes back to 1972, when China and Japan normalized relations.

In 1972, Keita participated in the project when the Shanghai Ballet Company performed the classic ballet work The White Haired Girl in Japan.

Then, in 1988, he led the Shiki Theatre Company to visit China to perform four shows of the musical Hans Christian Andersen in Beijing.

In 2002, the Shiki Theatre Company staged three shows of Giacomo Puccini's Madame Butterfly in Beijing, conducted by the world-renowned Seiji Ozawa.

An important bridge between the Shiki Theatre Company and China is Wang Xiangqian, who interviewed Keita in 2004 in Japan.

Wang, who gained her master's degree in theater from the University of Tokyo in 1996, says of Keita: "He told me that he had two dreams - to work with the Beijing People's Art Theater, and to stage the Chinese version of the company's musicals in China."

In 2006, Keita worked with the Beijing Peoples Art Theater and directed William Shakespeare's classic Hamlet.

In 2014, Wang became the CEO of Seasons of Songs Culture & Art Co Ltd, a Beijing-based company, which brings theater productions of the Shiki Theatre Company to China.

The latest Chinese version of The Cat Who Wished to Be a Man is one of the projects her company undertook.

Speaking about her links with Keita's company, she says: "It may have taken decades to fulfill his dreams. But the friendship of Keita and his company with China will continue, with more such theater productions being staged in China."

The Chinese version of Japanese musical The Cat Who Wished to Be a Man will tour the country this summer.

(China Daily 04/24/2017 page21)