A British man has learned the skills which are needed to perform Beijing Opera, making the audience enjoy his lively performance of the Monkey King.

Ghaffar Pourazar, born in Iran, said he had been a big fan of Bruce Lee since he was a child and was full of interest in China. In 1993, he happened to watch Beijing Opera in London. It was performed by professionals from Jingju Theatre Company of Beijing. Ghaffar said he fell in love with the beautiful voices, colorful costumes, excellent shows and so on. So after one year, he arrived in China alone and became a student of Beijing Opera at a Beijing school.

At the age of 32, Ghaffar had to learn with teenage students every day, starting from the most basic training of the legs and waist (腰). At the time, he was mostly troubled by the dialogue in Beijing Opera. For him, it was the biggest problem. But he never gave up.

Four years later, he began to learn to perform the Monkey King, a traditional character from the Chinese classic novel Journey to the West. He said he arrived at the workroom an hour earlier than other performers and also bought books and CDs to better understand the character.

Now Ghaffar is not only good at speaking Beijing dialect (方言), but also becomes famous for Beijing opera. He once got a top international prize for performing the Monkey King.

To help more people enjoy Beijing Opera, Ghaffar often teaches the traditional art form in schools in the United States, Britain and other countries. When he found that the language was difficult to understand, he started to translate Beijing Opera song lyrics. Ghaffar took a group of actors to perform 66 times a month and a half in the United States. He also took a 48-member team to perform in Malaysia. In the past 10 years, he has performed in more than 400 shows.

It’s a hot time for Chinese language learning across the world, not only because of China’s higher position in the world but also because of the increasing economic (经济的) and cultural connections between China and other countries. For example, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) (阿拉伯联合酋长国) plans to open Chinese language courses in 200 public primary and middle schools, so experienced Chinese teachers are needed.

Other Chinese courses opened across the world show the increasing need for Chinese-speaking talent. Mandarin (普通话) became an elective (可选择的) foreign language in Russian college entrance exam. Following English, German, French and Spanish, Mandarin has become the fifth elective test subject for the exam.

Spain has more than 40,000 people learning Chinese. Last year, about 8,000 people took the Chinese Proficiency Test (HSK) exam. The number of people who took the test was the biggest, according to Xinhua News Agency.

In the US, learning Chinese has been thriving for many years and is now a popular choice for American children, especially those who were born in good families. The children begin to learn Chinese at an early age because their parents believe that learning Chinese will help them build successful international careers (职业).

When the first ray of sunlight shines on the Old Town of Lijiang, Yunnan province, He Runyuan, dressed in a traditional Naxi clothes, is heading to his Center of Naxi Dongba Pictographs and Paintings.

Every day, the 43-year-old explains Dongba culture to visitors and teaches them to write Dongba characters（文字）.

Enjoying a history of over 1,000 years, Dongba characters are an old system of pictographic gluphs（象形文字）. They are seen as the “living fossil（活化石）” in writing. Because of its great importance, Dongba old books were written into the Memory of the World Register in 2003 by UNESCO.

As a member of Naxi group, he first learned Dongba characters at the age of 13. He fell in love with them at once when he first looked at them.

“These characters have pictographic drawings that look like humans, animals, plants and other natural motifs（图形）,” he said. “They are usually colorful and recognizable（可识别的）.”

Though the characters are interesting, learning them is never easy. Dongba culture is always mastered by Dongbas, the Naxi priests（祭司）, and passed down by spoken explanation. Without Dongbas in his village, He has to travel far to the Old Town, where many Dongbas live together. “In most of the time, I need to walk for more than one day to the Old Town. To get more learning time, I always set off very early when the city is still in darkness.” said He.

But the love for Dongba culture keeps him going. For the past 30 years, He has been studying these characters every day.

In 2016, he set up the Center of Naxi Dongba Pictographs and Paintings. The center pushes Dongba characters by drawing on everyday things, such as fans, glasses and even T-shirts.

As more old Dongbas passed away over time, people would slowly forget Dongba characters. He felt an urge to pass down Dongba culture and let more people know about it.

“Our life is short, but so long as everyone tries his best, and the life of a culture can last forever.” He said.