Renowned Canadian scholar Dashan, whose autonym is Mark Henry Rowswell, gave a speech about eastern and western cultures to students from Shantou University at Zhicheng Shuyuan of Shantou University in Shantou, south China's Guangdong province, on Oct, 15, 2014.

"I have two children and they were both born after 1990. Today I am so glad to talk with many young students who are so-called post-90s generation," said Dashan.

During the activity he talked about cultural differences between western and eastern. "The differences between western and eastern cultures are less than differences between man and women."

He also shared experiences on how to make friends with foreigners. "The key to making foreign friends is that don't see them as foreigners and accept and tolerate the differences," said Dashan.

"Although many Chinese tend to be talk about differences between western and eastern cultures, I would like to find common things in two cultures, such as the core of the Chinese Spring Festival is reunion which is the same as western Christmas."

"I have had an affinity with China for over 20 years. It is obvious that man to man, culture to culture have differences. But communication can make the west and the east know more about each other," said Dashan.

In 2012, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper named Dashan as Canada's Goodwill Ambassador to China. In 2008, Dashan served as team attaché to the Canadian Olympic Committee for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.

Upon graduation from the University of Toronto with a bachelor of arts in Chinese studies in 1988, Dashan was awarded a full scholarship to continue Chinese language studies at Peking University. Due to his passion of studying Chinese he became the first foreigner in Chinese "Crosstalk genealogy" which made him becoming famous when he attended the 1988 Chinese New Year Gala by playing Xu Dashan in a crosstalk.