When Western movies had just begun to enter Chinese people's lives in the 1990s, the Oscar winner Ghost was among the first batch of blockbusters that gained wide popularity among Chinese audiences. The theme song of the movie, Unchained Melody, which was recorded by The Righteous Brothers, and the romantic pottery-making scene featuring Demi Moore and Patrick Swayze, have also become unforgettable among Chinese fans.

Adapted from the movie, a musical of the same title will tour China for the first time beginning in June, opening in Beijing on June 30 before going to other cities, including Qingdao of Shandong province, Chongqing and Zhuhai of Guangdong province, taking Chinese audiences for a stroll down memory lane.

US screenwriter Bruce Joel Rubin, who wrote the hit movie more than two decades ago, wrote the scripts for the musical himself.

Staying close to the movie, the musical revolves around potter Molly, who lost her lover, Sam, in a mugging. With the help of a psychic, Sam, the ghost could reconnect with Molly and protect her.

For Rubin, a veteran writer with many screenplays to his credit, like 1990's Jacob's Ladder and 2009's The Time Traveler's Wife, he says that the story of Ghost has always been special to him. It's not just because the movie enabled him to reach the peak of his career by winning the best original screenplay of the Academy Award in 1991, he says, but he has had an unforgettable spiritual journey in his mind.

"It's about universal love. I want to say that life is beyond our understanding," the 72-year-old says of Ghost in a video he recorded at his home in northern San Francisco, which was played in Beijing at a news conference launch of the musical's China tour.

According to the associate director Paul Warwick Griffin, who was in Beijing along with the leading actors, Liam Doyle and Lucy Jones, Rubin has been invited to turn Ghost into a play many times during the past 20 years.

"He didn't want to put the story into the hands of people he didn't trust until producers Adam Silberman and David Garfinkle visited Rubin and convinced him to turn Ghost into a musical," Griffin says in Beijing. "Rubin not only did the script but also wrote lyrics for the musical. He was with us all the way through the production."

Scored by Dave Stewart and Glen Ballard, the musical was premiered in Manchester, England, in March 2011, and was later staged in Broadway. It has won three Tony nominations.

According to the associate director, the musical not only conjures up nostalgic emotions for audiences but also brings avant-garde futuristic special effects with the help of magic tricks and visual technology.

"You will see Sam walk through a closed door and a fight in a running New York subway train," says Griffin. "But usually the audiences are so busy crying that they don't have time to think about the magic."