In 2008, the song "Chinese" performed by the female singing group S.H.E at the CCTV Spring Festival Gala became a hit. The sentence "We have worked hard to practice English pronunciation and grammar for many years, but in the past few years, they have rolled their tongues and lea

In 2008, the song "Chinese" performed by the female singing group S.H.E at the CCTV Spring Festival Gala became a hit.

The phrase " We have worked hard to practice English pronunciation and grammar for many years. In recent years, they have changed their tongues to learn English. " became a popular lyric of the year, telling the cultural phenomenon of foreigners learning to be Chinese.

In fact, as early as 1984, a foreigner began to learn Chinese language, and this person was Dashan.

has been rooted in China for many years. Dashan married a Chinese wife and found a job in China. He joked that he is "foreign hardware, Chinese software". With his love for Chinese, Dashan also became a cross talk actor. At his peak, he was as famous as Guo Degang. is quite famous in the comedy industry. But now, Dashan, who was once so popular, has gradually disappeared. He can't be found in major comedy shows. What did Dashan do to make his fame plummet? What kind of fate does he have with China?

On May 23, 1965, Mr. Roswell of Canada had a son in his family. The family named the child "Mark Henry". Mark Henry's favorite thing when he was a child was to listen to Grandparents tell stories, and they always tell him: " Now you only have one aunt, but in fact you should have two uncles. If it weren't for the hateful war, my two sons would be alive today... "

Whenever these two children are mentioned, Mark Henry's grandparents will recall that story in China: In the last century, in order to save the Chinese people who were devastated by war and disease, many humanitarian doctors They all came to China to help the victims. The couple is no exception. They work as doctors in a hospital called St. Paul. Although they don't understand the language with the local people, they share the same heart for kindness. Because of their superb medical skills and good ethics, they are affectionately called "Rou" by the locals. doctor".

has been practicing medicine in China for many years. They sympathize with these patients very much and vow to treat every wounded person well. But in the end, they were forced to return to Canada due to the poor situation. At that time, the plague was raging. Unfortunately, the two sons of the Roswells contracted tuberculosis and died young, and they were unable to return to Canada. After listening to his grandparents’ stories, Mark Henry couldn’t help but wonder: What kind of place is China?

Now they are far away from the war, but does anyone still remember the grandparents who came here?

Mark Henry was full of fantasies about this mysterious Eastern country, and he had a great interest in Chinese. After being admitted to University of Toronto , he took a course on Chinese language and culture. Chinese teacher based on his English The pronunciation of his name gave him a Chinese name with a rather oriental flavor: Lu Shiwei.

After getting this name, Mark Henry was very excited. He introduced himself to everyone he met: "My name is Lu Shiwei", and his interest in Chinese became more and more important.

In his sophomore year, he simply changed Chinese from an elective course to a major course, and won a full scholarship with excellent results. After that, he was not satisfied with just learning about China from textbooks, and looked for opportunities to visit China on the spot. After graduation, I participated in an exchange program between China and Canada and came to Peking University to further my studies.

After having the language environment, his Chinese has improved a lot, and he can even appear on TV shows.

In 1989, he participated in the New Year's Day party with the sketch "Returning at Night". He was well-known to the audience for his sentence: "Open the door, I am Dashan."

The audience simply called this foreign guy "Dashan", and his Chinese name of Lu Shiwei was shelved from then on.

The audience was very interested in this blond, blue-eyed young man who spoke fluent Chinese.

In an era when everyone was learning foreign languages ​​crazily, this boy who came from a foreign country to learn Chinese attracted a lot of attention.

Jiang Kun is one of them.

Jiang Kun, as a representative figure in mainstream comedy, has been recruiting talents for the comedy industry. He was very satisfied after seeing the sketch performed by Dashan.

proposed to accept him as his apprentice. Dashan felt that learning cross talk can better understand Chinese culture and learn Chinese folk arts. So he agreed to Jiang Kun's invitation and became his apprentice.

After that, Dashan was highly praised by Jiang Kun. He appeared in the CCTV Spring Festival Gala in 1998 and 1999 with comedy works, and gained attention as a "foreign crosstalk actor". The audience had never seen a foreigner speaking crosstalk. , Dashan's appearance made the audience curious. Before Guo Degang led Deyun Club to occupy half of the world of cross talk, Dashan became a smash hit cross talk actor and frequently appeared in the audience's field of vision.

Although he is a foreigner, he has many years of research on Chinese culture. Dashan’s cross talk is very professional. He makes fun of Chinese pronunciation and local dialects. The collision between two different cultures often produces comedic effects. These have become Dashan’s Materials, when he stood on the cross talk stage and told these, Dashan got the laughter he wanted most. It can be said that Dashan was a "top" comedian in those two years. After

became popular, various interviews followed. In one interview, Dashan talked about his relationship with China, told the story of his grandparents in China, and also expressed that he wanted to visit the place where they used to work. He had the idea of ​​​​seeing it, but because many of the buildings back then were no longer what they used to be, he didn’t know where his grandparents were practicing medicine at that time. This sentence was heard by a female reporter, She invited Dashan to open " "Root Journey", taking him to visit the places where his grandparents walked.

Dashan naturally readily agreed upon hearing this suggestion. After many efforts, Dashan finally found the place where his grandparents practiced medicine at that time: Shangqiu City, Henan Province. The former St. Paul Hospital has now become Shangqiu People's Hospital. Dashan once thought that after experiencing the war and After the changes of the times, my grandparents have been forgotten. But I found the photos of my grandfather in the local museum. Seeing that my grandfather was included in the later "Famous Doctors of the Past", Dashan couldn't help but burst into tears...

This paragraph The root-seeking trip attracted attention from all parties after being reported. The relationship between Dashan and China was touching, and the contribution of his grandparents at that time was also touching. In order to thank Dashan’s grandparents for their contribution to the local people, Shangqiu City hired Dashan Becoming a local image ambassador, Dashan tasted the sweetness of cultural exchanges and has been contributing to cultural exchanges between the two countries since then.

After graduating from Peking University, Dashan joined the Canadian Embassy in China and became the public affairs ambassador in China. This inspired Dashan to work harder for cultural exchanges. In order to commend Dashan for his contribution to the friendly exchanges between China and Canada, the City of Ottawa, Canada The mayor awarded him the highest-level "City Key" in the city, and the following year he awarded Dashan the Lifetime Achievement Award. Dashan was also named one of the "Top Ten Outstanding Youths in Beijing" and received awards from China.

During the Olympic Games, Dashan spared no effort to take this opportunity to promote Chinese culture, and was hired by the Canadian Olympic Committee as a Chinese cultural consultant. After living in the mountains where I found my roots for many years, I decided to take root in China. My wife Ganlin is also Chinese.

Dashan and Gan Lin met at a performance. At that time, Gan Lin had a conflict between two colleagues due to work issues. After seeing this, Dashan took the initiative to help her out. This heroic act of saving the beauty won Gan Lin's heart.

After falling in love for a while, Dashan and Ganlin got married. After that, Dashan completely made his home in China. In terms of comedy,

launched a special show called "Talk About the Mountains", which combined foreign talk shows with traditional Chinese cross talk and added it to his performance, which received a good response. In terms of cultural exchanges, Dashan is still serving as a cultural messenger. At the beginning, Dashan was very balanced, but after having a family and children, he felt more and more unable to do what he wanted.

Because the two children are of mixed race, they will look different from ordinary Chinese children. In order to prevent the children from being negatively affected, Dashan sent the children back to Canada to study. This means that if he wants to take care of the children, he has to travel to both China and Canada. , If things go on like this, Dashan's body is a little overwhelmed. At this time, Feng Gong's words reminded him: " You can't have your cake and eat it too, you have to get out of your comfort zone. "

Dashan thought about it. , I feel that I should not forget my original intention , focus more on the study of Chinese culture and cultural exchanges between the two countries, and temporarily slow down the pace of comedy. Dashan has lived in China for many years. Nowadays, except for his appearance, accent, and living habits, he is basically the same as a Chinese. He jokes that he is "foreigner's hardware, Chinese software". People's Daily commented that he is "a foreigner." , but not an outsider." It can be seen that Dashan's contribution to cultural exchanges has been recognized.

Nowadays, Dashan devotes most of his time to family and cultural exchange work, and is less active on the comedy stage. Some people misunderstand that he is "not popular anymore and has passed away." In fact, becoming popular has never been Dashan's purpose. What he wanted from his freshman year was to study the extensive and profound Chinese culture. Now he has realized his dream. Dashan may not be the most famous crosstalk actor today, but he must be the most recognized cultural messenger.