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Q: Who is the greatest foreigner in China?
Who has done the most charity work? Who has won the most charity awards? Who has been interviewed on TV the most times? Who has lived here the longest? Who understands Chinese culture the most? Who knows the most about China? Who gets along best with the locals? Who is the most humble? Who is the most award-winning calligrapher and Tai Chi master?
Shall we ever know? Surely such a humble and accomplished man would not brag of such things on the internets! 
Clearly, brothers and sisters, the answer is great Canadian Da Shan, aka Mark Henry Roswell. He has donated literally millions to charity. He's won thousands of awards, both Chinese and the most highly honoured Order of Canada medal. His has made thousands of appearances on CCTV, including four New Years Galas, the New Years Gala being the most watched annual show on earth. He is a master of both Manadarin and Cantonese, and the Chinese often remark that his Chinese is better than the Chinese.
He has been in China since 1988, and almost immediately became a television star. His understanding of Chinese culture is so deep, that his entire career has been built around playing a number of "man on the street" Chinese characters, which are so convincing that the Chinese don't question a foreigner poking at their foibles. Now that's a profound and deep knowledge of China! Never the less, he is famously humble, almost to a fault. It's a wonder that such an accomplished man doesn't let it go to his head. Another reason the Chinese admire him!
He is also an award winning calligrapher and taichi master. Truly, he is the greatest foreigner in China. If only he posted on these forums, and not us!
Just look at that face:
That's the face of having won a good number of awards in China.
Sinobear:
Little known addition: Dr. Wilder Penfield, also a great Canadian, came to China during the "Red" years and contributed freely of his expertise.
Well, this ended up in the wrong darn place! Supposed to be with Norman Bethune.
Back home, when I worked at CBC, he came to give an interview. At the time, I had no idea who he was, but outside the station there was mobs of Chinese people, we were all very confused!
Da Shan is a well known foreigner in China among locals and expats but not necessarily the greatest one in China. Most Chinese will remember another Canadian as the greatest foreigner in China, Dr. Norman Bethune (1890-1939), who died in China during the second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945) . In 2009, a Chinese online selection of top 10 International Friends received more than 56 millions of votes where Dr. Bethune was voted as No. 1 (4694484 votes) International Friend of China while Da Shan was out of top 10 list with 1351140 votes.
Gravenhurst, Ontario is the hometown of Dr. Behtune where his residence is now a Canadian national historic site. Norman Bethune Medal is the highest medical honor in China.
More info about Norman Bethune can be found from this link:
Oh.
Well hell, I thought we had the greatest "foreigner" right here!
Now I'm bummed.
GuilinRaf:
You are right! I Changed my mind, Burce Lee is SECOND.X-D
am I the only one who thinks Da Shan in a huge douche? I will say that he's incredibly good at the whole Chinese thing (language and otherwise) but still seems to come off as that expat guy who is simply too weird and outsiderish to fit in back home.
notalocalpeople:
that being said, he gets my vote as the best foreigner in China (currently)
kchur:
I think if anyone lived that long in China they'd start seeming that way. Anyway, I think he got his degree in Chinese. Not much else you can do with that but go to China.
GuilinRaf:
I wont go so far as to say he is a douche, but I do find him clownish. I do however, wish I could speak Chinese as good as he does!
notalocalpeople:
perhaps douche was a bit strong....clownish is a good term...I've found that my vocabulary is not what it used to be.
