James Ostram Fraser was a Christian missionary to the Lisu people of western China in the early part of the 20th Century. Born in Scotland, Fraser travelled to China's Yunnan province in 1910, and spent nearly forty years there among the Lisu. Fraser is best known for the alphabet he created for the Lisu, designed for purpose of translating the New Testament into the Lisu language. Fraser also designed a written musical notation for transcribing the Lisu's oral history songs.

In 1992, the Chinese government officially recognized the Fraser alphabet as the official script of the Lisu language. Today, Fraser is remembered as one of Christianity's most successful missionaries to east Asia in modern times.

External links

• The Fraser alphabet (http://www.omniglot.com/writing/fraser.htm)
• James O. Fraser: Prayer Makes History (http://www.watchword.org/smithers/ww50a.htm)