A Roar beyond race

Creator of The Lion King, the world's top-grossing stage musical shares her views on cultural inspiration and racial sensitivity as we await the debut of its Chinese version.

The first time I saw the stage version of The Lion King - I was among the lucky few who, in 1997, did not book eight months in advance but waited in front of New York's New Amsterdam Theater and met someone who happened to have an extra ticket - I was struck by how Asian its aesthetics were.

As anyone who saw the film knows, the story is set on an African safari. So, the cast members for the stage production were mainly black and there was no surface element that would yell "Asian". But the way the story was presented onstage seemed to be rooted in Asian traditions, or so I thought.