Dashan

For the mountain range, see Central Mountain Range. For the island, see Dashan Island.

Dashan
Dashan (Mark Rowswell) hosting a live broadcast for China Central Television in November 2006
Born
Mark Henry Rowswell

(1965-05-23) May 23, 1965 (age 59)
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Alma materUniversity of Toronto
Peking University
OccupationPresenter

Mark Henry Rowswell, CM (born May 23, 1965),[1] better known by his Chinese stage name Dashan (Chinese: 大山; pinyin: Dàshān; lit. 'Big Mountain'), is a Canadian comedian, xiangsheng performer, and television personality popular in China. Relatively unknown in the West, from the late 1980s through the early 2000s Dashan was one of the most famous Western personalities in China's media industry, where he occupied a unique position as a foreign national who had become a domestic celebrity, largely through his repeated appearances on China Central Television (CCTV) during that period. Since 2012 Dashan has largely turned away from mainstream media to focus on solo performances in live venues, helping to introduce stand-up comedy to China.[2]

  1. ^ "The Citizen's Classifieds". Ottawa Citizen. May 25, 1965. Retrieved May 8, 2015 – via Google News Archive.
  2. ^ "How a Canadian became China's most famous foreigner" True North Far East, September 13, 2019. Retrieved on March 21, 2021.