First Years in Yunnan
Born in London in 1886, he became a graduate engineer. However in 1908 he dedicated his life to missionary work and joined the China Inland Mission. He arrived in China at the age of 22 and traveled from Shanghai to Hong Kong and then to the mountainous region of China's far southwest.
He was forced by the chaos accompanying the Chinese revolution of 1911 to divide his time between Yunnan Province and Burma. He learned the language of and commenced his work among the Lisu, a Tibeto-Burmese minority people who lived in the high mountains along the borders of the two countries. Fraser had arrived in Yunnan in 1910, and spent nearly thirty years working among the Lisu. Fraser is best known for the alphabet he created for the Lisu, often referred to as the Fraser alphabet. It was 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. Going to China with CIM (China Inland Mission), he was stationed in the then remote province of Yunnan to work with the local Chinese. But Fraser was a keen climber and revelled in climbing through the mountains meeting and preaching to the Lisu people, particularly in the upper Salween River valley. Readily accepted by them and able to live in their mud floor huts, he was able to communicate a little through Chinese and then to learn their language, which is in the Tibeto-Burman group. Initial success was followed by years of doubt and difficulty until 1916 when he and fellow missionaries started to see scores of families convert to Christianity and enthusiastically pursue a new life without the fear of the spirits that had previously characterised them. By 1918, sparked by family evangelism carried on by the people themselves, 60,000 believers had been baptized. Fraser was known for his ability to organize the people into strong indigenous churches that became models for church-planting ventures not only for other minority peoples in China's southwest but in other countries as well.
Aware that they would soon need material in their language, he began work immediately on Mark's gospel and a book of hymns, since they showed great interest in writing and were already great singers and natural musicians.
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