A new book titled Karl Gützlaff and the Opening of China was published this month as an effort to reshape the image of this controversial European missionary to China.
Released by Zhonghua Book Company, this book consists of nine chapters, "aiming to reshape the historical image of Karl Gützlaff in order to reveal the role he played in public opinion and during the 'Opening of China'" in the first half of the 19th century, according to Chinese Christian Studies.
Karl Gützlaff (郭实猎) was a German Lutheran missionary to Asia and the first man who came to China from Continental Europe.
The book introduces that "with a flamboyant and high-profile manner," the Prussian, "arrogant and impetuous by nature," was "the first to break through the Qing government's maritime trade restrictions in the early 1830s," thanks to his extraordinary linguistic talent. He played multiple roles, "including that of an opium trader, British commercial superintendent, translator, advisor, intelligence officer, colonial official for the British forces invading China and the Hong Kong colonial government, as well as a missionary."
As the editor of Eastern Western Monthly Magazine, the first Chinese-language periodical published in China, he was also the founder of the Chinese Union, the earliest inland missionary society in China.
His theses and travelogues written in Chinese, English, German, and Dutch were influential.
"He remains a key figure for understanding the Sino-Western encounters of the early 19th century, yet his actions and persona are filled with contradictions, making him an enigmatic and elusive historical figure," the book writes.
"This book fills in the micro-level details within the broader framework of modern history established by previous scholars. Through vivid historical facts, it realistically portrays Karl Gützlaff’s mindset and actions during his illegal coastal voyages in Qing China from the 1830s to the 1850s." Zhou Weichi, a researcher at the Christian Studies Department at the Institute of World Religions, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences commented, "On a micro level, it reveals the interconnectedness of missionary work, trade, public opinion, and military force in the westward expansion of the 19th-century Western European imperialism. Building upon previous domestic and international research, it advances both the historical source material and scholarly understanding of the subject."
The author of the book is Li Wuzhe, who holds a PhD in history from Fudan University and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Tübingen in Germany. His primary research focuses on the political history of late Qing China and the history of modern Sino-foreign relations. He is currently an associate professor under the "Hundred Talents Program" at Sun Yat-sen University.
