Luo Sen

Luo Sen (Chinese: 羅森; 1821-1899) was a Chinese interpreter and writer known for his significant role during the late Qing dynasty. He was born in Guangdong and is believed to have received an education sufficient to pass the Imperial examinations, though details of his early life remain limited.
In 1854, Luo Sen joined Commodore Matthew Perry’s second expedition to Japan as an interpreter. He was fluent in English and deeply knowledgeable in Chinese literature, though he did not speak Japanese. Since officials of the Tokugawa shogunate could read and write classical Chinese, Luo Sen acted as a written intermediary during the negotiations for the Treaty of Peace and Amity between Japan and the United States. His writings—especially Diary of Japan (published in Chinese in November 1854)—offered valuable observations about Japan in the closing years of the Edo period.
His reports on conditions in Qing China, including during and after the Opium Wars, were later read and translated by Japanese intellectuals, contributing to debates on modernity and reform.
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