Karl Gutzlaff acting as an interpreter between British officers and Chinese Mandarins at a conference in Chusan during the Opium War.

Before Hong Kong became a colony, communications between China and the West were hampered because of a shortage of interpreters. Chinese-speaking westerners were rare because teaching a foreigner the Chinese language was an offence punishable by death in imperial China.

Early Victorian linguists were, therefore, either missionaries or opium dealers. Karl Gutzlaff, a former Pomeranian saddle maker, combined both professions. Before the Opium War, (1839-1842), he was employed by William Jardine as an interpreter aboard the opium smuggling ship Sylphe, preaching Christianity to the Chinese while selling them opium. He also dabbled in espionage. Gutzlaff was married to an Englishwoman. Her orphaned 14-year-old nephew, Harry Parkes, arrived in Macau in October 1841 and was sent to Hong Kong to learn Chinese under JR Morrison, the Chinese secretary to Sir Henry Pottinger, then superintendent of trade, who later became the first governor of Hong Kong.

Parkes was aboard HMS Queen when the British battle fleet fought their way up the Yangtze River to Nanking (Nanjing), where peace negotiations were opened with the Chinese. During these talks, "Uncle" Gutzlaff decided to visit the Porcelain Tower. Parkes wrote in his diary: "Upon coming near the tower I ran on first, and was the very first Englishman that ever visited the Porcelain Tower." A few days later he witnessed the signing of the Treaty of Nanking where the Chinese ceded Hong Kong Island to the British. The boy so impressed Pottinger that he sent him to Chusan (Zhoushan), which was still occupied by British forces, where Uncle Gutzlaff was the chief magistrate. Parkes officially joined the British Consular Service at the age of 15. He stayed in Chusan for 11 months before he was posted to Canton (Guangzhou) to learn "consulate business" under Robert Thom, whose main claim to fame was translating Aesop's Fables into Chinese.

At that time, Shanghai was the only one of the five treaty ports to function successfully. Parkes was posted to Amoy (Xiamen) as the consulate interpreter. As the consul couldn't speak any Chinese, Parkes had to conduct most negotiations himself.

The terms of the treaty were repugnant to the Chinese officials who adopted a deliberate policy of being obstructive and using delaying tactics. Parkes was moved around the five treaty ports because he was equipped with an overbearing personality and had the ability to cut through the red tape and get things done. In 1854, he was promoted and became the British consul in Amoy.

In 1856, Parkes was moved to Canton where he became acting consul. It was the only treaty port where foreigners were confined to a small ghetto and were not allowed to move around the city freely. With some justification, the Chinese viceroy, Commissioner Yeh, claimed that the streets were unsafe. Yeh was unimpressed by Parkes' bullying tactics. He retaliated by arresting the Chinese crew of a small ship called The Arrow that was flying a British flag, and hauled down the Union Jack.

The overreaction of Parkes and the governor of Hong Kong, Sir John Bowring, to this incident was largely responsible for sparking off the Arrow War (1856-60) that followed. Sir Harry Parkes is considered in China as the arch-villain of colonialism. In modern Chinese films he is portrayed leading cavalry charges, firing off cannons and losing sword fights against heroic Manchu mandarins. In reality, he was a non-combatant but, as a leading interpreter and negotiator for the British leader Lord Elgin, he played a prominent part in the war.

During the negotiations outside Peking (Beijing) with the imperial Mandarins, Parkes was kidnapped, imprisoned and tortured. Most of his escort was brutally slaughtered. At the time, the Chinese had never heard of international law. In retaliation, Lord Elgin burnt down the Summer Palace, in which Parkes had been imprisoned; a punishment designed specifically to humiliate the emperor.

At the age of fourteen, Harry Parkes claimed to be the first Englishman to visit the Porcelain Tower at Nanking.