STA’s "Foreign Monkey King" performs at East China Normal University International Cultural Festival

Publisher:主页英文版Time:2019-12-03Views:135

2 December 2019

On the evening of 29 November, at the invitation of East China Normal University (ECNU), Ghaffar Pourazar, an international student at the Shanghai Theatre Academy (STA), participated in the 13th ECNU International Cultural Festival. This was the first time that ECNU had invited international students from other universities to participate in this cultural feast.

Ghaffar collaborated with Qian Yuting of Shanghai Kunju Opera Troupe to perform a selected part of Borrow Fan. It was hard to imagine that the Monkey King on the stage was a foreigner if he had not purposely only painted the mask on half of his face and left the other of his foreign face visible.

Ghaffar got to know Peking Opera more than 20 years ago. In 1993, Ghaffar, who was student of 3D animation design, watched a performance given by Jingju Theatre Company of Beijing in London. He was fascinated by the beautiful singing, gorgeous clothes, varied postures and superb acting skills. For more than 20 years since then, Ghaffar has been committed to learning and promoting Peking Opera. This year, Ghaffar was admitted as a doctoral student of Chinese opera studies at STA. It is believed that in the future, this international student at STA who loves Peking Opera, sings Peking Opera and performs Peking Opera will make more unique contributions to the promotion of traditional Chinese art.