The Six most Famous Expats in China (3-4)

Mark Rowswell (Da Shan)

Da Shan may be the most famous contemporary expat in China. The Canadian has been in China since the mid-1980s when he studied Chinese in Beijing. Da Shan became interested in traditional Chinese performing arts, particularly the dialogue called Xiangsheng. His interest eventually led to a television appearance on a Xiangsheng TV program, which led to hundreds of other TV appearances to make him a household name across China.

Da Shan was the first foreigner to be selected by Beijing officials as one of the ten “Outstanding Youth of Beijing” in 2005. He was selected to carry the Olympic torch during the 2008 torch relay through Beijing, and was given the Key to the City of Ottawa for his contributions in building relations between Canada and China.

Morris Abraham "Two-Gun" Cohen
One of China’s many famous expats of Jewish descent, Morris Abraham Cohen became aide-de-camp to Sun Yat-sen and a major-general in the Chinese army. Cohen went to China in the early 1920s to work on a railway project for Sun Yat-sen, and later asked if he could be Sun’s body guard. He was hired, and shortly thereafter involved in a gunfight where he was nicked by a bullet. From that battle on, Cohen decided to carry a second gun for protection and thus received his nickname.



Sun died in 1925, and Cohen then became a bodyguard for Sun’s friends and relatives, including TV Soong. In the late 1930s, when the Japanese attacked, Cohen eagerly joined the war effort, staying to fight in Hong Kong until the city finally fell in 1941. The Japanese put Cohen in a prison camp where he was badly beaten for 2 years until being part of a rare prisoner exchange between Japan and Canada in 1943. He returned to Canada but made frequent trips back to China after the war until his death in 1970. His last visit to China was as an honored guest of Zhou Enlai.

Posted at 03:11PM Sep 17, 2008 by admin in Laowai Talk  |  Comments[1]