John Fryer

John Fryer (6 August 1839, Hythe, Kent, England - 1928), also known as Fu Lanya , was an English sinologist who was first Louis Agassiz Professor of Oriental Languages and Literature at the University of California, Berkeley. He was professor of English at Tung-Wen College , Peking, China and head of the Anglo-Chinese School in Shanghai, China, and established the Shanghai Polytechnic and Institute for the Chinese Blind there. He was president of the Oriental Institute of California, United States.

Early life Fryer was born in Hythe, Kent, England, in 1839, the oldest child matriculating in 1860. He spent the next year at Highbury Training College, London, where he obtained his teaching certificate.

In childhood, Fryer developed a deep interest in things Chinese, spurred on by his parents' own preoccupation. He was particularly impressed when a Chinese tea merchant from Canton visited and gave him a silver dollar. and in 1882, Eliza Nelson, an educator and missionary, who was also working in China.

Fryer was editor of the Shanghai Xinbao (Shanghai Gazette) from 1866 to 1868,

Fryer established the Shanghai Polytechnic Institution and Reading Rooms in 1876. After difficult beginnings, the institution thrived until 1904 when its last science classes were held, then to be replaced by the Shanghai Science Middle School on the site in 1917. Gezhi Huibian (the Chinese Scientific Magazine, later the Chinese Scientific and Industrial Magazine) from 1876 to 1892. He had a distinguished teaching career up to his retirement in 1913. He was considered a pioneer of Chinese studies in the United States.

The John Fryer Trophy for Chinese History is conferred by St. Paul's College, Hong Kong, for academic excellence.