A scene from the Chinese edition of Mamma Mia, which has had more than 400 shows in the past three years.

He was the first to introduce a collection of Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical creations on DVD, and he even invested in a TV show, which systematically introduced Broadway musicals to audiences in Shanghai.

When he became involved in the business of live entertainment, he found the key part has remained the same as in the DVD business, which is intellectual property, or copyright.

It was producer Colin Ingram from Britain who came up with the idea of adapting the film Ghost from 1990, starring Demi Moore, Patrick Swayze and Whoopie Goldberg for musical theater. He was the one who convinced the original writer Bruce Joel Rubin to entrust the story to him, and the film studio to grant the right for adaptation. The producer then hired the writer and composer to work on the story, and worked on where music and songs could fit in with the storytelling.

There is a saying in the industry that goes "a song should deliver 30 pages of dialogue". They carry the emotional flow, and keep audiences engaged and entertained. In Ghost, the musical, all the songs were new compositions by Dave Stewart and Glen Ballard, except for the golden hit Unchained Melody by the Righteous Brothers. That song, together with the scene where the heroine played by Demi Moore was making pottery, was probably the most unforgettable from the film.

The live theater production has the pottery scene with Unchained Melody, and still, they have to deliver something more than the film.

It is 25 years since the film came out, said Ingram in Shanghai. He needed to present the story on a different canvas, of the musical theater, and bring fresh feelings to make it attractive to young audiences.