Of all the competitions going on at the Summer Olympics in Beijing, the one for most popular Canadian in China is already decided.

That accolade belongs to Mark Rowswell, who won't compete in a single Olympic event but has long been a popular television personality and the biggest foreign star in the country of 1.3 billion.

Rowswell, 43, is known in China as the smooth-talking foreigner named Dashan (Big Mountain in English) who has a knack for speaking Mandarin with the proficiency of the locals.

But the Toronto native's entertainment career will be on hold for the next few weeks. The Canadian Olympic Committee has appointed Rowswell as a team attache to help its athletes and staff overcome the cultural and social obstacles during the Olympics.

Rowswell's bread and butter used to be his mastery of xiangsheng, an ancient form of comic Chinese word play. But since his accidental rise to fame 20 years ago, he's branched out considerably and become a bona fide celebrity who hosts a popular New Years Eve program viewed by nearly 800 million people in China.

"It's a common question if you're Canadian in China. Do you know Dashan?," Rowswell said in a recent telephone interview from Beijing. "That's the assumption in China, if you're from Canada then you must know Dashan."

Rowswell found fame in China by accident after studying Chinese in Toronto and moving to Beijing to further his studies. Teachers recommended him for a skit on a television variety show two decades ago which began his meteoric rise in an unfamiliar market.

Just being associated with the six-foot, blue-eyed cultural icon should benefit the Canadian team.

A central component to Rowswell's image in China is his Canadian background, one that the Chinese find accessible and easy to like.

"Canadians have that image in China as being culturally sensitive and adaptable, much more than other foreigners," said Rowswell, who splits his time between Beijing and Canada. "We tend to be used to other cultures - growing up in multicultural environments in bigger cities."

Dropping the name Dashan into casual conversation has its advantages too.

During a visit to Beijing recently, some Canadian Olympic Committee members turned a publicity photo of them posing with Dashan into a 15 per cent discount at the local silk markets, provided an autographed picture was in the mail.

"Some people who have my photo say they take it to a market and it helps them get a discount," Rowswell jokes. "It gets recognition anyways, and it helps to reinforce the image of Canadians as being friendly and culturally adapted people."

Despite his drawing power in China, Dashan still remains a relative unknown in Canada and leads an anonymous life in the Toronto area, although that is slowly beginning to change.

"I get a fair amount of exposure in the Chinese Canadian press and the vast majority of recent Chinese immigrants are from the mainland and know me in the first place," said Rowswell. "A lot of people (in Canada) have heard of the story but it's always more of a novelty story and it doesn't have much of an impact on people."

Still, Rowswell doesn't expect he'll be taking North America by storm any time soon.

"I often get media requests saying 'I'd love to cover your story because Western readers don't know much about you,"' he said. "But after doing 10 or 15 years of those interviews, I've realized that's not going to change the situation.

"Ten or 15 years later, readers still won't know about me because that's not where my work is focused."

Rowswell describes his image as more of a friendly, next-door neighbour type in China, not quite like a Hollywood celebrity.

"It's not so much being the Hollywood idol with paparazzi and stalkers and people chasing you around all the time," Rowswell said. "People will see me and say hi but they aren't chasing me or hoarding me for autographs. The core of the image is that people really just treat me as one of their own."

China may pay the bills but Rowswell says his allegiance is firmly in the Canadian corner at the Olympics, despite the fact China is expected to be a powerhouse at the Games.

"I'm really rooting for the whole event in general and I hope it goes off smoothly because it is a milestone in the development of China," said Rowswell. "For my family, it doesn't really matter that much who wins. But when we're watching an event, we'll be cheering for the Chinese athletes as well."

Rowswell, whose wife and two children occasionally join him when he's in China, is well versed in the political and social issues surrounding the Olympics. But in keeping with his role as a cultural ambassador between China and the West, he's hoping for a smooth Games.

"A lot of people in China think that there are a lot of people out to disrupt the Games," said Rowswell. "In some quarters I think a lot of people feel that China is under attack and that foreigners are resentful of China's development and are using the Games to put down China."

He says one of his jobs is to try to refute that assumption.

"There may be difficulties and misunderstandings but we are trying to change that us versus them mentality," said Rowswell. "There's a lot of time after the Olympics to keep working on the problems and differences we have."

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