Tell a Beijing cabbie you're from Canada and, though he will know not a word of English, he will smile enthusiastically and speak two names: "Dashan", the Chinese stage name of Ottawa-born entertainer Mark Rowswell, the most beloved foreign entertainer in China, and "Bái Qiúēn." The latter is the pinyin rendering of three-Chinese characters whose sound approximates syllabically the last name of the most beloved foreign hero in China: Norman Bethune. This 12-minute narrated video, which features images from the Library and Archives Canada, encapsulates the remarkable life of the hard-headed and big-hearted Canadian surgeon. The portrait above is one of dozens of Bethune propaganda pieces commissioned during Mao Zedong's Cultural Revolution.
Norman Bethune: An Uncompromised Life
