[Photo provided to China Daily]

The novel's author, Liao, 57, used to work in an advertisement agency before fully devoting himself to writing. He wrote A Chance of Sunshine while battling leukemia. One day, when he was resting at home, he began to wonder who his unseen immediate neighbor was as he heard noises of renovation from the house next-door. That was how he came up with the story's central idea.

Li, the musical's director and a longtime friend of the author, says: "The story resonated with me not just because of the romance but also because of the description of people's relationships. For people like us, who live in Taipei, a fast-paced city, it's easy to ignore beautiful things, such as meeting strangers."

Li invited award-winning songwriter Chen Chien-chi and Wu Tsing-fong to write more than 30 songs for the musical. In 2012, in the musical's third version, the director added two roles - a woman who looks for her cat and a rock musician who pursues his dream - to supplement the main characters.

Taiwan singer-songwriter Joanna Wang plays the role of the woman looking for her cat. The 27-year-old, who rose to fame early after releasing her bilingual debut album, Start From Here, says that she was attracted to the musical because of Li's poetic approach and a "dreamlike atmosphere" the story creates onstage.

"I enjoy singing as someone else rather than as myself," says Wang. "It's surreal."

The musical's producer, Chang Bao-huey, who was recently in Beijing along with members of the cast, says that while the original novel remains unclear on whether the two main characters finally get together, the musical ends on a happy note.

In 2012, Li turned Sound of Colors, another popular graphic novel by Liao, into a musical as well.

Praising Liao for the effective use of colors in his drawings, Chang says that such stories bring out the characters' emotions when told as musicals.