Thoralf Klein is a historian of modern China and a global historian. His research focuses on the relationship between China and the wider world in the last 200 years. He has published on a wide range of topics, including the history of religion (with special emphasis on Christianity and political religion), imperialism and (post-)colonialism, transcultural studies, media history, the representation of China in the West, and the history of Sino-German as well as Sino-African relations.
Having received his doctorate in 2000 from the University of Freiburg (Germany), Dr Klein went on to complete his Habilitation at the University of Erfurt in 2007. In 2007/08, he was a Fellow at the College of Cultural Studies at the University of Konstanz. He is currently a review editor and member of the steering group at H-Soz-u-Kult: Communication and Information Services for Historians and a member of the advisory board for the journal Globalgeschichte/Global History.
Dr Klein is currently working on two interconnected projects, each of which will culminate in the publication of a monograph. Competing Socialisms: The Sino-Soviet Rivalry in Tanzania during the Cold War (with Kirsten Bönker, North-East Institute/University of Hamburg, Germany, and Andrea Kifyasi, University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania) provides an in-depth case study on the hitherto neglected competition between the Soviet and Chinese socialist models in Africa. The monograph will be accompanied by an online edition of relevant primary sources. The single-authored China and Africa: A Global History of Representations and Encounters provides an overview of Sino-African relations, with an emphasis on mutual perceptions and interactions in a global context.
Dr Klein has taught at undergraduate, Masters’ and PhD levels, developing courses on Chinese, East Asian and world/global history. At Loughborough, he teaches a first-year survey module on making and unmaking of the world order and convened three out of five first-year history fieldtrips to Berlin between 2015 and 2019. In the second and third years, he offers modules on China’s and East Asia’s interactions with the wider world, drawing on his broad research expertise in these fields. Dr Klein served as programme director for History in 2011–2014 and and for International Relations, Politics and History from 2019 to 2022. He was external examiner for the MA programme in History at Nottingham Trent University between 2019 and 2024.
Dr Klein has supervised doctoral dissertations and MA theses on the history of imperialism and (post-)colonialism, war, migration, media, religion and the environment in China as well as other parts of East Asia and the world and invites postgraduate students to work with him in these and other related fields.
Current PhD Students
- Jessica Bonfils, Cuba, a Pan-African Actor? The Afro-Cuban Diaspora and the Reinforcement of Pan-African Liberation Movements during Cuba’s interventions in Congo, Guinea-Bissau and Angola.
- Li Yanpeng, "Soft colonialism": The Historical Legacy of Extraterritoriality in the Identity Formation of Chinese Immigrants in Thailand, 1850-1934.
- Zhang Jiaxin, Sports in the Quan Song ci 全宋词 (960–1279).
Recent PhDs (year of completion)
- 2020 - Cuomu Zhaxi, Tibetan Identity, Chinese Nationalism and Chinese State Media: An Analysis of Media Text and Audience Reception of the Tibetan Representation of China Central Television.
- 2019 - Wang Yingzi, Chinese Television between Propaganda and Entertainment: Socialist Traditions, Marketisation and Popular TV Dramas, 1992-2017.
- 2019 - Richard Li Xinan, Believing through Belonging: A Sociological Study of the Christian Conversion of Chinese Migrants in Britain.
- 2016 - Maximilian Drephal, The British Legation at Kabul: The Coloniality of Diplomacy in Independent Afghanistan, 1922-1948.
Monographs
- Klein, T. (2009). Geschichte Chinas von 1800 bis zur Gegenwart [A History of China from 1800 to the Present] (2nd ed.). Paderborn: Schöningh (first published in 2007).
- Klein, T. (2002). Die Basler Mission in der Provinz Guangdong (Südchina), 1859-1931: Akkulturationsprozesse und kulturelle Grenzziehungen zwischen Missionaren, chinesischen Christen und lokaler Gesellschaft [The Basel Mission in Guangdong Province]. Munich: Iudicium.
Edited Volumes
- Klein, T. (Ed.). (2020). The Boxer War: Media and Memory of an Imperialist Intervention. Kiel: Solivagus.
- Jansen, T., Klein, T., & Meyer, C. (Eds.). (2014). Globalization and the Making of Religious Modernity in China: Transnational Religions, Local Agents, and the Study of Religion, 1800-Present. Leiden: Brill.
- Klein, T., & Schumacher, F. (Eds.). (2006). Kolonialkriege: Militärische Gewalt im Zeichen des Imperialismus [Colonial Wars: Military Violence in the Name of Imperialism]. Hamburg: Hamburger Edition.
Peer-reviewed journal articles
- Klein, T. (2023). Visual Narratives of Boxer-Era China: Two German Photo Albums of the Early 1900s. International Journal for History, Culture and Modernity, 11, 51–79. doi: 1163/22130624-20230010.
- Wang, Y., & Klein, T. (2022). Representing the Victorious Past: Chinese TV Drama between Propaganda and Marketisation. Media, Culture and Society, 44(1), 105–210. doi: 1177/01634437211022721.
- Klein, T. (2019). Biography and the Making of Transnational Imperialism: Karl Gützlaff on the China Coast, 1831–1851. Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, 47(3), 415–445. doi: 10.1080/03086534.2018.1539726.