Name: Ghaffar Pourazar
From: Cambridge, London, Manchester
Lives in: Beijing and California

"Foreigners who come to stay in China start by fooling themselves into thinking that there is a 'MAGIC' which survives only in this ancient culture. Most give up eventually and leave China, those who stay realise that they were NOT fooling themselves."

Ghaffar Pourazar has committed his career to Beijing Opera, which he believes is a 'time capsule' of Chinese culture, history, mythology, poetry, literature, fine arts & performing arts.

Ghaffar is of Azerbaijani Iranian parents, raised and educated in the UK; resident of Beijing and California, with a Masters degree in Computer Animation. He was a teacher of Computer Animation and Theatre at the British School for Performing Arts & Technology in London, when one evening in the summer of 1993 he saw a Beijing Opera performance by the Beijing Youth troupe at Queen Elizabeth's Hall. The performance was to completely change his life.

He followed the troupe to every successive performance and ended up in Beijing, living and training with them. Ghaffar is known in China as the "big nose" Beijing Opera performer with several dozen documentaries made on his work. He graduated from the Beijing Opera School in the roles of the 'Warrior' and 'Monkey King' before attending the National Academy. He is the director of the International Centre for Beijing Opera and the leader of the International Monkey King Troupe.

Ghaffar's mission is to make Beijing Opera accessible to the rest of the World, through educational and performance tours. He has received grants from British Council (China) and Asia Cultural Council (NY) to preserve and archive interviews with the last of the Beijing Opera old masters.  In 1997 he adapted and directed Shakespeare’s ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ in Beijing Opera style; performed by the National Troupe of China.  Since then he has been commissioned by international organisations in Beijing to create new performances conveying their messages and themes in China. Pourazar believes that Beijing Opera is one of the world’s richest and most beautiful theatres in the world. However like many traditional art forms it has fallen upon hard times due to competition from more modern and popular forms of entertainment.

Ghaffar Pourazar has received international awards for his works in computer animation, theatre and Beijing Opera and for the last 16 years in Beijing he has hosted and entertained top visitors from all over the world.