J. (John) Macgowan

John Macgowan (1835–1922) was a writer and missionary associated with the London Missionary Society. He is remembered for a long career in China, especially in Amoy (now Xiamen), where he wrote about Chinese society, religion, customs, and language for readers in Britain and beyond.

His books include Chinese Folk-Lore, Men and Manners of Modern China, The Imperial History of China, and an English and Chinese Dictionary of the Amoy Dialect. Taken together, they show a strong interest in explaining daily life and traditional stories as well as larger questions of history and belief.

Macgowan is also linked with early anti-foot-binding work in China: accounts of the Heavenly Foot Society say it was founded by John Macgowan and his wife, missionaries working there. That mix of missionary activity, language study, and wide-ranging nonfiction gives his writing a distinct place in the English-language literature on China from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.