Karl Gützlaff

Karl Friedrich August Gützlaff, anglicised as Charles Gutzlaff, was a German Lutheran missionary to the Far East, notable as one of the first Protestant missionaries in Bangkok, Thailand (1828) and the first Lutheran missionary to China (1831-1848). He was a colorful "swashbuckling Pomeranian" who combined his prodigious talent as a prolific Christian author and linguist with participation in the illegal opium trade in 1830s China. He was one of the first Protestant missionaries in China to dress in Chinese clothing and was said to be so proficient in Chinese language and culture that he could pass as Chinese. His books were widely read and his adaptation to Chinese culture served as a model for the later work of missionary Hudson Taylor, founder of the China Inland Mission. In recognition of his travels, often illegal by Chinese law, up and down the Chinese coast, he was elected as a member to the American Philosophical Society in 1839. Controversial during his life, Gützlaff has continued to be so for historians.