| R. G. Tiedemann | |
| Birth Date: | 1941 2, df=y |
| Nationality: | German |
| Occupation: | Historian |
| Known For: | Christianity in China |
| Spouse: | Liliana |
Rolf Gerhard Tiedemann (8 February 1941 – 1 August 2019), better known as R. G. Tiedemann or Gary Tiedemann (Chinese: p=Dí Démǎn|t=狄德滿), was a German historian of Christianity in China.[1]
Born in Hartenholm, Schleswig-Holstein in wartime Germany, Tiedemann left school as a teenager. At 21 he settled with family in Wisconsin, and was later drafted to train in the US army's Medical Training Unit in Texas during the Vietnam War. He completed a BA at University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, followed by an MA and a PhD at SOAS University of London. After taking several part-time posts, Tiedemann spent twenty years teaching Modern History of China in SOAS's Department of History, including a sabbatical at the Ricci Institute, University of San Francisco. After his retirement, he maintained a post as Professorial Research Associate at SOAS and as Professor of Chinese History, Shandong University, Jinan.[2] [3]
His research mainly concerned the history of Christianity in China, with a particular focus on Shandong and the Boxer Rebellion. He also edited the second volume of the Handbook of Christianity in China,[4] which totalled over a thousand pages; about half of the entries he wrote himself.[5] Tiedemann was also a review editor of Journal of Peasant Studies.[6]
A festschrift was published in honor of Tiedemann, edited by two of his former students, entitled The Church as Safe Haven (2018).[7]
Tiedemann died on 1 August 2019, after suffering from illness for many years.[3] [8]