As Keigo Higashino's mysteries find new life on stage, young audiences are discovering fresh meaning, connection and community.

So excited that she nearly missed her high-speed train, 20-year-old Zhang Ziting will never forget her recent trip from her hometown of Xuzhou, Jiangsu province, to Shanghai.

She was not heading there for sightseeing, but for a musical she had long wanted to see — The Devotion of Suspect X, adapted from the novel of the same name by the late Japanese mystery writer Keigo Higashino.

On Aug 21, the musical was staged at the Theatre of Great Shanghai as a tribute to Higashino, who died of colorectal cancer on July 23 at the age of 68.

READ MORE: Renowned Japanese mystery novelist Keigo Higashino dies at 68

A devoted reader of Higashino, Zhang knew the story almost by heart. It follows genius mathematician Tetsuya Ishigami, who goes to extraordinary lengths to protect Yasuko Hanaoka and her daughter after they kill Hanaoka's abusive ex-husband. His carefully constructed cover-up is eventually unraveled by his former college friend, Manabu Yukawa.

Even so, Zhang was eager to experience the story in a different form.

"Without the actors, the set and the music, the story would never come to life," she said. "It is like walking into Higashino's world all over again, through my senses."

Stage awakens story

Bathed in cool-toned lighting, the stage creates an industrial, mechanical world.

Two intersecting steel structures form a giant "X", echoing the musical's title while giving the actors a layered, dynamic space in which to perform.

As the story unfolds, Ishigami pours out his inner turmoil in the song X. At other moments, he and Hanaoka sing The Answer, a duet that brings out emotions that are less explicit on the page. The song shows the two characters expressing their feelings for each other from afar.

"The Answer made me cry. Reading the novel alone, I couldn't have grasped the depth of emotion between Ishigami and Hanaoka," Zhang said.

The musical features more than 20 original songs created by the Chinese production team MSK MUSICAL. The team first brought The Devotion of Suspect X to the stage in 2023 after securing the rights to adapt the novel.

The music is part of a broader effort by the creative team to translate Higashino's psychological storytelling into a theatrical form.

When director Hu Xiaoqing was invited to helm the musical, she wanted to do more than simply reproduce the novel. For her, the suspense was only one layer of a story rooted in human emotion.

In the novel, Hanaoka and her daughter interrupt Ishigami's suicide attempt when they greet him for the first time. The moment is brief on the page, but Hu gives it greater weight onstage.

She contrasts Ishigami's despair with the mother and daughter's warmth and happiness, making their arrival a moment of hope in his bleak life.

"Stage works need to be leaner than novels, but this scene was a must to keep," Hu said, adding that she wanted audiences to feel how human warmth can give someone a reason to keep going.

Hu applies the same approach elsewhere in the musical. She also gives greater prominence to Ishigami's encounters with homeless people. In the novel, they mainly serve the plot. Onstage, they become a mirror of Ishigami himself — a man who is still alive but has become increasingly isolated from society.

"I hope these new interpretations can help the audience understand the world of people living on the margins while seeing the story from a fresh angle," Hu said.

Legacy lives on

For some longtime readers, these changes have not only reshaped their understanding of the characters, but also revealed new layers in Higashino's writing.

For Rao Chen, 26, the musical offered a chance to rediscover an author he had read in high school.

Higashino's novels were already popular among Rao and his classmates at the time. Rao was fascinated by the mysteries and enjoyed trying to solve them but paid much less attention to the emotions beneath the plots.

"To me, the characters' feelings were not that important back then, because his works weren't exactly known for romance," Rao said.

But when he watched the usually cold and rational Ishigami break down, as his plan fell apart, Rao saw the character differently. For the first time, he realized that even Ishigami's cold logic could be undone by love.

In the character, Rao said, he "seemed to have found Higashino himself — an author who hides emotional bonds beneath the surface of suspense".

Rao is far from alone.

On Douban, a major Chinese review platform, readers have posted comments about the musical, while others have left tributes on Higashino's author page.

On the day news of his death was announced, Chinese fans flooded his Douban page with virtual flowers, with some users reporting temporary page lag and slow refreshing.

The stage has become another place where Higashino's stories continue to reach readers.

MSK MUSICAL has also been involved in adapting another of his novels, Tegami, also known in English as The Letter, into a musical.

The story explores the discrimination faced by the families of people convicted of crimes, giving audiences another way to think about the social issues raised in Higashino's work.

"Not every story can be turned into a musical," said Zhang Zhilin, founder of MSK MUSICAL.

"When developing a literary IP, we consider its social value and the creative potential of its characters," he added.

Zhang Zhilin believes such adaptations can help Higashino's stories live on after his death.

Beyond The Devotion of Suspect X and Tegami, works including The Miracles of the Namiya General Store and The Murder in Kairotei have also been adapted for stages across China.

As Higashino's stories move from the page to the stage, theaters are also becoming places where young fans can meet others who share the same interests.

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Zhang Ziting experienced that firsthand. Her train arrived in Shanghai about three hours before the musical began. With time to spare, she met another Higashino fan at a nearby restaurant. The two talked about the story over dinner, exchanged contact information and became theater-going friends.

For Zhang, a journey that began with a familiar mystery ultimately gave her something unexpected — a new way to experience a favorite writer's world and a new friend with whom to share it.

Shen Min, deputy general manager of the Theatre of Great Shanghai, said more young people are treating theaters as social spaces.

"Offstage, they befriend the strangers sitting next to them; online, they share their theater experiences and photos to build their social media personas," Shen said.

As Higashino's stories continue to move from the printed page to the stage, young audiences are not simply revisiting them. Through performances, conversations and new friendships, they help the stories live on.