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his master is jiang kun, his mentor is ma ji, but this canadian has appeared on cctv spring festival gala four times. everyone praised his crosstalk performance and even commented on him:

he is a foreigner, but not an outsider.

but although he loved chinese culture, he decisively left china because of a word from feng gong. what prompted him to make such a decision?

canadian youth who love chinese culture

dashan was born in ottawa, canada in 1965. he grew up listening to chinese stories told by his grandfather, and his heart was full of yearning for traditional chinese culture.

after he became an adult, dashan enrolled in the department of east asian studies at the university of toronto and devoted himself to studying chinese culture. in order to get closer to his dream country, he gave himself a chinese name with the help of his chinese teacher - lu shiwei.

during his first year of college, dashan was deeply attracted to chinese culture, so in his sophomore year he took the initiative to change his major to chinese.

but to dashan, the knowledge in books is always strange and distant.

in 1988, dashan graduated from university with excellent grades and was selected by the university to participate in the exchange program with china. at this moment, he was finally close to the land he had always dreamed of.

after coming to china, dashan entered peking university to study chinese language and literature. at this time, he fell in love with this familiar yet unfamiliar country more and more.

in 1989, under the organization of the school, dashan had the honor to participate in the new year's eve gala of cctv at that time, and played a patriotic young man named xu dashan in the sketch "returning home at night".

dashan liked the role he played in this skit very much, and he also hoped that his name could be more down-to-earth, so from then on he used "dashan" as his chinese name.

during the new year's eve party, dashan first became aware of the unique chinese art of crosstalk. he watched crosstalk master jiang kun perform the crosstalk "big news" vividly on the stage, and his heart was filled with infinite yearning.

this bold and daring man took the initiative to find jiang kun after the party, hoping that he would have the honor to learn crosstalk from him.

although jiang kun had never had a foreign disciple before, at dashan's request, he finally accepted this apprentice from canada.

dashan, who became an excellent crosstalk artist

surprisingly, dashan did not show any outstanding talent in learning languages ​​since childhood, and even his native french was something he learned with difficulty when he was a child.

but when it comes to the unfamiliar chinese language and a new art form like crosstalk, dashan's learning has made rapid progress.

in a very short period of time, dashan became jiang kun's favorite student, and he even appeared in the spring festival gala in 1998 and 1999.

although he has a foreign face, he speaks fluent chinese, which makes countless audiences laugh. dashan also enjoys the happiness that crosstalk brings him.

in 1990, dashan met the love of his life, a chinese girl named gan lin, during a performance in liaoning. soon they got married, and dashan settled in china temporarily.

in 2006, dashan broke through himself and participated in "the court painter lang shilin" directed by zhang zien. then in 2007, he co-performed the french local comedy "super idiot" with the famous comedian guo donglin.

the two also won the shanghai magnolia awards for best actor and best supporting actor respectively, and dashan became the first foreign winner of china's three major drama awards with this award.

although dashan has performed very well in film, television and drama, he has not given up his work in crosstalk.

in 2009, dashan and six other famous crosstalk artists presented the classic crosstalk "new interpretation of five senses". in 2011, dashan led a number of foreign students from the confucius institute to perform the crosstalk "brothers all over the world".

so far, he has performed crosstalk on the cctv spring festival gala stage for four consecutive times, leaving a very deep impression on many chinese audiences.

whenever he was interviewed in public, he would always express his gratitude and love for the chinese land without hesitation.

it is precisely because of this that dashan has gained a group of very loyal chinese fans in china.

but not long after, the media broke the news that dashan had sent his wife and children back to canada. suddenly, dashan's image of loving china was questioned by many viewers.

going global and committed to promoting chinese culture

after 2012, dashan almost disappeared from the sight of chinese audiences. it was not until 2015 that he returned to beijing to hold his first solo performance "dashan talks dashan".

it turns out that the reason why he shifted his family and work focus back to canada was because of what the famous crosstalk artist feng gong said to him: "if you want to continue to make progress, you must bravely step out of your comfort zone."

it is true that feng gong did refer to dashan's actual situation when he said this. dashan had already achieved many brilliant achievements in china, and many chinese audiences had long ignored his foreign appearance and regarded him as one of their own.

but for dashan, his original intention was to learn chinese culture and then spread it. but if he stayed in china, the latter goal would be almost impossible to achieve.

so, dashan abandoned all the glory he had in china and chose to return to canada with his wife and children.

in canada, he integrated what he had learned in crosstalk and drama, and held one special performance after another, effectively conveying chinese culture to more canadians.

in 2008, when the beijing olympics opened, dashan served as the special envoy of the canadian olympic committee. he then served as canada's general representative at the 2010 shanghai world expo.

although dashan has reduced the frequency of appearing in front of the chinese people, every time he appears, he contributes to the cultural exchanges between china and canada.

in april 2017, dashan successfully performed on the stage of the melbourne international comedy festival with his own production "dashan talks dashan". at this moment, he has perfectly realized his ideal of spreading chinese culture.

in 2022, after the spring festival gala of the year of the tiger, dashan’s master jiang kun was pushed by netizens into a controversy over plagiarism of his apprentice dashan.

dashan, who has not appeared on the spring festival gala for many years, took the initiative to post on the social platform to refute the rumors about his master, and said that it was probably because he, as an apprentice, performed like his master.

after that, dashan did not stop. at the end of 2023, dashan also participated in the chinese version of the drama "the shawshank redemption", once again stepping out of his familiar comfort zone.

passion should come from the bottom of one's heart, not just in any external form. for dashan, he has become a representative figure of friendly cultural exchanges between china and canada.

and such a foreigner will never be an outsider.