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Rolf Gerhard Tiedemann (1941–2019)

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 Monumenta Serica
Journal of Oriental Studies

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Rolf Gerhard Tiedemann (1941–2019)

Lars Peter Laamann

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Monumenta Serica, 68:1, 235-240, DOI: 10.1080/02549948.2020.1748294

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Monumenta Serica: Journal of Oriental Studies, 68. 1, 235–240, June 2020

ROLF GERHARD TIEDEMANN (1941–2019)

LARS PETER LAAMANN
To his students and academic
friends, he was known as a humble
and patient interlocutor. Fellow his-
torians from around the world knew
Rolf Gerhard (aka “Gary”) Tiede-
mann (Chin.: Di Deman 狄德滿) as
a veritable human encyclopaedia;
their queries usually focused on
the minutiae of missionary history.
Whatever the occasion of a conver-
sation with this remarkable scholar,
the attentive listener would emerge
with an unexpected cornucopia of
information on aspects clearly
connected in universal minds such
as Prof. Tiedemann’s. Thoroughly
familiar with the ideas that drove
missionaries and revolutionaries
alike, he was particularly interested
Rolf Gerhard Tiedemann, ca. 2010. Private in the actual lives of the persons
photo. populating the pages of our history
books. And of those who do not feature: the unknown farmers, soldiers, and
labourers behind the martial and economic success stories that make it into the
pageants of History. Gary Tiedemann had things to say about both, “high” and
“low,” and very much so out of own experience.
Born into the most destructive of wars in the northernmost parts of Germany, the
young Rolf Gerhard was the descendent of farmers and shepherds, nearby Hamburg
providing a foretaste of the greater world that would await him in later years. All too
fittingly, the city was the last intended travel destination which he, together with his
wife Liliana and their son Martin, attempted to reach on the very day of his death.
An academic career was nowhere near his concerns during his youth; instead, he
experienced a flavour for the international when working for a trading firm in
post-war Hamburg. In fact, he did so well that he was awarded a prize by the
municipal chamber of commerce for his meticulous attention to detail and insight
into the historical context – two characteristics which would benefit him greatly
later in life. The move from the Alster to Lake Michigan occurred as a logical
alternative, since the Milwaukee region was already home to several of his relatives.
Gary Tiedemann acquired American citizenship, escaped by an act of fate active
combat in Vietnam and instead used his time in the US Army in order to educate
himself at San Antonio College and eventually at the University of Wisconsin-

© Monumenta Serica Institute 2020 DOI 10.1080/02549948.2020.1748294

236 LARS PETER LAAMANN

Milwaukee, by means of part-time study. This was where he met his Argentinian
wife Liliana, during a time when his passion for travel would for the first time
also take him to (central) Asia. By the end of this formative experience, Gary Tiede-
mann made the fateful decision that would transport his academic attention to
China’s modern history and the Tiedemanns to London for the remainder of his
life. As a research student at the School of Oriental and African Studies (i.e.,
SOAS, University of London), Gary entered the stormy world of 1970s Britain.
He also witnessed the fallout of the Cultural Revolution in China, and the sub-
sequent period of modernisation and opening-up to the outside world during the
Deng Xiaoping period. It was during this very time that he taught, at Hatfield Poly-
technic (Hertfordshire, England) and soon after also at SOAS, the fundamentals of
modern Chinese history in the interpretation of the May Fourth movement as
adapted by Mao Zedong Thought. Where the latter placed the emphasis on the
“proletarian” character of the peasantry, Gary Tiedemann could contribute with
his own experience of growing up amongst the poor peasantry in post-WW2 Hol-
stein. His childhood would also feed into his long-term editorial commitment to
the Journal of Peasant Studies, which was international in scope, yet never imposs-
ible to unite with his European roots and fascination for early modern China. His
article “Communist Revolution and Peasant Mobilisation in the Hinterland of
North China: The Early Years” is representative of Gary Tiedemann’s early work.1
It was during this period, the late 1980s, that I first learnt to appreciate his teach-
ing of modern Chinese history. Long before so-called “New Qing History” had
become common currency, Gary Tiedemann would qualify some of his interpret-
ations – in particular regarding the insurrections of the nineteenth century – as
“slightly different from the textbooks.” What he meant was that the dichotomy
into “Western imperialists” and “victimised China” did not always hold up to histori-
cal scrutiny. Alas, given the pressure he was under as a lecturer, the publications that
expressed this point had to wait for another few years. In particular his articles
“They also served! Missionary Interventions in North China, 1900–1945,”2
“Social Gospel and Fundamentalism: Conflicting Approaches in the Protestant Mis-
sionary Enterprise in China (1840–1911),”3 “Foreign Missionaries, Chinese Chris-
tians and the 1911 Revolution”4 and the recent “Catholic Mission Stations in
Northern China: Centres of Stability and Protection in Troubled Times,”5 in an
edited volume dedicated to his scholarly impact, stand out in this respect.
The same applied to the results of Tiedemann’s research into the role of Western
missionaries and their “mission stations” during the time of the Boxer (Yihetuan 義

1
In: Henry Bernstein and Tom Brass (eds.), Agrarian Questions: Essays in Appreciation of
T.J. Byres, Special Issue of The Journal of Peasant Studies 24, no. 1 – no. 2) (London: Frank
Cass, 1996), pp. 132–152.
2
In: Tao Feiya and Philip Yuen-Sang Leung (eds.), Reinterpreting East Asian Christianity
(Hong Kong: Center for the Study of Religion and Chinese Society, Chung Chi College, Chinese
University of Hong Kong, 2004), pp. 155–194.
3
In: The Catholic Church and the Chinese World: Between Colonialism and Evangelization
(1840–1911), edited by Agostino Giovagnoli and Elisa Giunipero (Vatican City: Urbaniana Univer-
sity Press, 2005), pp. 83–105.
4
In Tripod 31 (2011), pp. 12–34.
5
In: Lars Laamann and Joseph Lee (eds.), The Church as Safe Haven: Christian Governance in
China (Leiden: Brill, 2019), pp. 261–290.
 ROLF GERHARD TIEDEMANN (1941–2019) 237

和團) Rebellion, for instance as expressed in his articles “The Church Militant:
Armed Conflicts between Christians and Boxers in North China”6 and “Der mis-
sionspolitische Kontext in Süd-Shantung am Vorabend des Boxeraufstandes in
China.”7 Whilst his doctoral thesis8 is still being prepared for publication, an
edited Chinese translation was published in 2011.9 Another milestone was a
volume co-edited with Robert Bickers on the Boxer movement.10 It is precisely for
his Boxer research that Gary Tiedemann is remembered in China today. At Shan-
dong University (Shandong daxue 山東大學) he worked closely with Professors
Lu Yao 路遥 and Liu Jiafeng 劉家峯, preparing research colloquia and teaching
their students following his retirement from SOAS. In recognition of his devotion
to the Boxer theme, he was awarded with a professorship and will be officially
remembered at a conference organised at Shandong University commemorating
the 120th anniversary of the Boxer Movement in October 2020.
The further his research progressed, the less Tiedemann relied on textbook knowl-
edge. The Ph.D. students whom he raised into academic adulthood, and the publi-
cations which followed his retirement from SOAS in 2006, had one thing in
common, namely their focus on the indigenous development of Christianity –
Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox – in modern China. This also implied that Chris-
tianity became removed from missionary agency in the narrow sense, i.e., what
really mattered on the ground was the actual interpretation of the Christian
message by the villagers and citizens of (early) modern China. Simultaneously, mis-
sionaries took on roles which made up for the increasingly threadbare protection by
Chinese officials and Qing forces, offering their missionary stations to converts and
non-Christians alike in times of danger. The same went for the fast-rising demand for
effective health care (medicines, hospitals) and non-traditional education (schools,
colleges and, eventually, universities), although these two aspects were covered
early on by missionary historians. Given his background as a Lutheran north
German, it is not surprising that Karl Gützlaff features amongst Tiedemann’s writ-
ings.11 The SOAS archives, as well as the many universities in Britain and North
America, provided unlimited raw materials for his craft. The same can be said for
the Netherlands and Scandinavia, where his native Low German Plattdütsch
allowed him to understand the missionary vernaculars. However, most of his pro-
ductive efforts were focused on the China’s Catholic communities, for which he

6
In: Robert Bickers and R.G. Tiedemann (eds.), The Boxers, China and the World (Lanham,
MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2007), pp. 23–28.
7
Postscript in: Stephan Puhl, Georg M. Stenz SVD (1869–1928). Chinamissionar im Kaiser-
reich und in der Republik (Nettetal: Steyler Verlag, 1994).
8
“Rural Unrest in North China 1868–1900: With Particular Reference to South Shandong”
(SOAS, University of London, 1991).
9
Huabei de baoli he konghuang: Yihetuan yundong qianxi jidujiao chuanbo he shehui
chongtu 華北的暴力和恐慌——義和團運動前夕基督教傳播和社會衝突 (Violence and Panic in
Northern China: Missionary Activity and Social Conflicts on the Eve of the Boxer Uprising)
(Nanjing: Jiangsu renmin chubanshe, 2011).
10
R.G. Tiedemann and Robert Bickers (eds). The Boxers, China, and the World (Rowman
and Littlefield, 2007).
11
“Missionarischer Einzelgänger oder Visionär? Die Missionsmethoden Gützlaffs,” in:
Thoralf Klein and Reinhard Zöllner (eds), Karl Gützlaff (1803–1851) und das Christentum in
Ostasien: Ein Missionar zwischen den Kulturen. Collectanea Serica (Nettetal: Steyler Verlag,
2005), pp. 193–228.
238 LARS PETER LAAMANN

was also equipped with the right linguistic tools: French and Spanish (and passively
also Italian and Portuguese) were the languages which provided him with access to
the sources of the Catholic world mission. In due course, the articles began to flow,
right until his end: “The Leading Christians of Jiangnan in the Early Qing Period,”12
“The Papacy, Foreign Missionaries, and Catholics: Conflict and Accommodation
between Maximum Illud and Ad Sinarum Gentem,”13 “Chinese Female Propagators
of the Faith in Modern China: The Tortuous Transition from the ‘Institute of
Virgins’ to Diocesan Religious Congregations.”14 These and his earlier “Controversy
over the Formation of an Indigenous Clergy and the Establishment of a Catholic
Hierarchy in China, 1846–1926”15 were clearly focused on the Catholic China mis-
sions. Simultaneously, his interest in the mutual interaction between popular reli-
gious groups and Christian converts began to grow, a process which could take
effect into both directions of the missionary process. Articles concerned with the
transformation of Christianity into an indigenous Chinese religion include
“Anti-Christian Conflict in Local Context. The Life and Times of Pang Sanjie:
Patriot, Bandit, Protector or Revolutionary?”16 “Comity Agreements and Sheep
Stealers: The Elusive Search for Christian Unity among Protestants in China”17 as
well as “Christianity and Chinese ‘Heterodox Sects’: Mass Conversion and Syncret-
ism in Shandong Province in the Early Eighteenth Century.”18 In focusing on Chris-
tianity’s inculturation in China, Gary Tiedemann contributed to the thorough
redefinition of missionary agency which scholars such as Nicolas Standaert (Katho-
lieke Universiteit Leuven / Catholic University Louvain), Daniel Bays (Calvin
College), Erik Zürcher (University of Leiden) or Brian Stanley (University of Edin-
burgh) had begun to pursue a little earlier in time. His Reference Guide19 paid tes-
timony to his knowledge concerning missionary history in China, although
Tiedemann will arguably be best remembered for the second volume of the Brill

12
In: Ferdinand Verbiest Institute (eds.), History of the Catholic Church in China: From Its
Beginning to the Scheut Fathers and the 20th Century; Unveiling Some Less Known Sources,
Sounds and Pictures (Leuven: Ferdinand Verbiest Institute, K.U. Leuven, 2015), pp. 235–259.
13
In: Barbara Hoster – Dirk Kuhlmann – Zbigniew Wesołowski (eds.), Rooted in Hope: China
– Religion – Christianity. Festschrift in Honor of Roman Malek S.V.D. on the Occasion of His 65th
Birthday / In der Hoffnung verwurzelt: China – Religion – Christentum. Festschrift für Roman
Malek S.V.D. zu seinem 65. Geburtstag, vol. 1 (Abingdon, Oxon – New York: Routledge,
2017), pp. 383–410.
14
In: Piotr Adamek, SVD – Sonja Huang Mei Tin (eds.), The Contribution of Chinese Women
to the Church. Proceedings of the Conference “I Have Called You by Name,” September 25–26,
2014, Sankt Augustin (Germany) (Siegburg: Franz Schmitt Verlag, 2019), pp. 145–175.
15
In: Roman Malek S.V.D. and Gianni Criveller P.I.M.E. (eds.), Light a Candle: Encounters
and Friendship with China. Festschrift in Honour of Angelo S. Lazzarotto P.I.M.E. Collectanea
Serica (Sankt Augustin – Nettetal: Steyler Verlag, 2007), pp. 337–375.
16
In: Peter Chen-Main Wang (ed.), Contextualization of Christianity in China: An Evaluation
in Modern Perspective. Collectanea Serica (Sankt Augustin – Nettetal: Steyler Verlag, 2007),
pp. 243–275.
17
In International Bulletin of Missionary Research 35 (2012) 1, pp. 3–8.
18
In Monumenta Serica 44 (1996), pp. 339–382.
19
Reference Guide to Christian Missionary Societies in China: From the 16th to the 20th
Century (Armonk: M.E. Sharpe, 2008, republished in Chinese as Xiwen yihetuan wenxian ziliao
huibian 西文义和团文献资料汇编 [Compilation of Western Documentary Material on the
Boxers] (Jinan: Shandong daxue chubanshe, 2016).
 ROLF GERHARD TIEDEMANN (1941–2019) 239

Handbook of Christianity in China,20 which encapsulates the sheer breadth of his

insight. At this point it should be noted that Gary Tiedemann authored around
half of the entries himself. Until his very last days, Gary Tiedemann was busy produ-
cing academic contributions. His latest, and last, article has only just entered the
peer reviewing process, intended for a festschrift for Brian Stanley. For a comprehen-
sive list of titles, see https://rgtiedemann.com/cv/.
Far from idealising the missionary involvement in China, Gary Tiedemann became
engaged in the process of mapping “Sino-Western cultural exchange.” He was thus
naturally drawn to academic centres and university institutions which were devoted
to the same purpose, notably the [Matteo] Ricci Institute for Chinese-Western Cultural
History at the University of San Francisco (Prof. Wu Xiaoxin 吳小新), where he as Vis-
iting Research Professor pioneered the digital use of archival information in the History
of Christianity in China database project (http://ricci.rt.usfca.edu/) during the late
1990s. The Centre for East-Western Cultural Exchange at Central China Normal Uni-
versity, Wuhan (Huazhong shifan daxue Dong–Xi wenhua jiaoliu zhongxin 华中师范
大学东西文化交流中心), called into being by Prof. Zhang Kaiyuan 章开沅 and contin-
ued by Professors Ma Min 马敏, Xu Bingsan 徐炳三 et al., is another institution where
Professor Tiedemann promoted scholarly exchange with China. In Europe, he worked
for the Centre for the Study of Christianity in China (Oxford), attended the presenta-
tions of the Christian Missions in Global History Seminar and actively contributed
to the “Sino-Western” ambitions of the late Roman Malek (1951–2019, Societas
Verbi Divini), former professor in religious studies and Chinese religion at the
Philosophical-Theological Faculty S.V.D. as well as long-time director and
editor-in-chief of the Monumenta Serica Institute at St Augustin, near Bonn.
If I were to single out two lasting legacies of Gary Tiedemann’s academic contri-
bution, then it would have to be the following: Firstly, he helped spearhead a
renewed interest in missionary archives – not with the purpose of compiling hagio-
graphies for the missionaries who had made their way to China, but in order to find
out what impact their encounter with the receiving cultures made both in the mis-
sionaries and in the local communities. Secondly, his untiring attention to detail,
often correcting factual mistakes which had survived unchallenged in historical pub-
lications simply because nobody knew better. Gary Tiedemann did – most of the
time – without ever vaunting his exceptional knowledge.

CHINESE ABSTRACT
紀念狄德滿 (Rolf Gerhard Tiedemann, 1941–2019)

本文紀念著名的中國史研究學者和倫敦大學亞非學院的狄德滿教授。他不幸於2019年8月
去世。狄德滿教授1941年出生於德國北部鄉村。隨著他1960年代移居美國，又在1970年
代移居英國，他也踏上研究中國歷史的學術之路。現代學界關於基督宗教歷史的研究應歸
功於狄德滿教授。事實上，藉著他的出版作品，他促進了這一研究領域的建設並將其作為
中國學研究層面充滿活力的學科。早期，狄德滿教授就已將傳教修會的檔案看作彌足珍貴
的信息資源，並向其他漢學家引介。他是中國鄉村天主教和新教傳教研究以及義和團運動
方面的專家。退休后，狄德滿教授與中國義和團研究大師路遙教授和山東大學的劉家峰教

20
Handbook of Christianity in China, Vol. 2: 1800 to the Present (Leiden: Brill, 2010).
 240 LARS PETER LAAMANN

授一起合作陶育下一代的研究人員。狄德滿教授留下的長久遺產是博睿出版的《中國基督
宗教手冊——第二卷，1800年至今》，他編輯並貢獻了近一半的詞條。

NOTES ON CONTRIBUTOR
Dr. Lars Peter Laaman is Senior Lecturer in the History of China at the History Department of
the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), London.
Correspondence to: SOAS University of London, Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square:
College Buildings, London WC1H 0XG. Email: ll10@soas.ac.uk

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