J. O. P. (John Otway Percy) Bland

Born in 1863, John Otway Percy Bland was a British author and journalist who spent many years in China. He worked in Chinese maritime customs before moving into journalism, and he later became widely known for writing about Chinese politics, diplomacy, and court life.

Bland is especially remembered for books on the Qing dynasty and its collapse, including works on the Empress Dowager Cixi and the Boxer era. Writing from close observation of events in Beijing, he introduced many Western readers to a turbulent period in Chinese history through fast-moving, strongly argued narratives.

He died in 1945. Although some of the material associated with his era has been debated by later historians, his books remain an important part of the English-language record of late imperial and early modern China.