Edward Charles Bowra

Edward Charles MacIntosh Bowra (1841–1874) was a British citizen serving in the Chinese Maritime Customs working for the government of the Qing dynasty.

As an amateur Sinologist and botanist he showed a range of scholarly and practical interests which reflected the then common view that a cultivated gentleman could master Oriental culture.

He published a history of the province of Canton (Guangdong),[1] and compiled Index Sinice et Latine for Justus Doolittle's Vocabulary and Handbook of the Chinese Language (1872),[2] but his most widely known accomplishment was a pioneering translation of the first eight chapters of Dream of the Red Chamber in 1868.

][citation needed] In 1863 he was appointed clerk in the Chinese Maritime Customs, serving under Sir Robert Hart in Tientsin and Shanghai.

He was promoted to Deputy Commissioner in 1872.He organized the Chinese contribution for the Vienna Exhibition of 1873, for which the Austrian government awarded him the Order of the Iron Crown.