Carl Joseph Fast

Carl Joseph Fast (simplified Chinese: 发士; traditional Chinese: 發士; pinyin: Fāshì; (also written as 法士) Foochow Romanized: Huák-sê̤ṳ; October 8, 1822 – November 13, 1850) was the second Swedish missionary sent to China[1] and the first Protestant missionary murdered in Fuzhou.[2]

Tombstone of C.J. Fast in Fuzhou, ca. 1910

On January 1, 1850, Fast arrived in Foochow (today Fuzhou) as the missionary from the Lutheran Lund Missionary Society of Sweden,[3] and was joined by Anders Elgqvist later that year. The mission they set up in China was short-lived. On November 13, 1850, the two missionaries were brutally assaulted by Chinese pirates when they were coming up the River Min after getting money from a ship. Armed with a pistol Elgqvist survived the attack, but Fast was killed on the spot.[4]

Fast was buried in Fuzhou Nantai.[2] An order was given by then-Fujian Governor Xu Jiyu (徐继畬) to capture the murderers within three days, and the case was finally settled on November 18, with three criminals brought to justice.[5]

References
  1. Så började svensk mission i Kina Archived 2012-05-26 at the Wayback Machine (in Swedish)
  2. Geil, William Edgar (1911). Eighteen Capitals of China. J. B. Lippincott. ISBN 978-1-4021-6618-1.
  3. Lund Missionary Society (LuMS) Archived May 17, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
  4. Carlson, Ellsworth C. (1974). The Foochow Missionaries 1847-1880. ISBN 978-0-674-30735-3.
  5. 鸦片战争与徐继畬 Archived July 7, 2011, at the Wayback Machine (in Chinese)
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