author

Gilbert McIntosh

Best known for writing about the American Presbyterian Mission Press in Shanghai, this late-19th-century missionary author also produced a practical guide to the Shanghai dialect. His surviving books give a glimpse of print culture, language learning, and missionary life in China.

1 Audiobook

Useful Phrases in the Shanghai Dialect

Useful Phrases in the Shanghai Dialect

by Gilbert McIntosh

About the author

Gilbert McIntosh was a Scottish-born missionary and writer connected with the American Presbyterian Mission Press in Shanghai. A scholarly biographical database describes him as born in Falkirk in 1861 and dying in 1919, and identifies him as a missionary and superintendent of the Presbyterian Mission Press.

He is chiefly remembered for The Mission Press in China (1895), a jubilee retrospective on the American Presbyterian Mission Press and related Bible and tract work in China. He also wrote Useful Phrases in the Shanghai Dialect, a practical language manual that suggests close, everyday engagement with local speech as well as publishing work.

Although detailed personal information is hard to confirm from easily available sources, the record of his publications shows a writer deeply involved in missionary printing and communication in Shanghai. Today, his books are mainly of interest to readers curious about the history of Christian missions, printing in China, and the study of regional Chinese dialects.