Deutsch Intern
Sinology in Würzburg

Dr. Michael Malzer

Michael Malzer is a research assistant at the Chair of Contemporary Chinese Studies since 2018.

He completed his doctoral dissertation titled „Sinicizing Global Aspirations at the Yellow River: Transformations across Social Worlds in Urbanizing Yinchuan“ in 2026. During his doctoral research he spent one semester at Ningxia University in Yinchuan for fieldwork, and a separate semester in the position of ECLC managing director at Peking University. Between August 2024 and the end of 2025, he was the project coordinator in the BMFTR funded joint center “Worldmaking from a Global Perspective: A Dialogue with China.”

In addition to an M.A. in Chinese Studies, he also completed the first Bavarian state exams for a high school teaching degree (English; Political and Social Studies; Chinese as an additional subject). In the context of his studies at the University of Würzburg he spent a year abroad at the University of Texas in Austin, and two separate semesters at Beijing University within the sinology’s ECLC program.

Research

His research interests include urban change, social identities, and ethnic minorities. His dissertation project, completed in 2026, focuses on urbanization and social change in the city of Yinchuan, Ningxia. His current research interests focus on temporalities and nostalgia in contemporary China.

Teaching

Michael Malzer has been teaching introductory courses to China, as well as seminars on ethnicity and nation, social worlds, and temporalities and nostalgia.

Publications

  • Malzer, Michael. “No More Arabian Nights at the Yellow River: The End of Yinchuan’s Image-Building Strategy as China’s Flagship Muslim City.” Urbanities 10, no. 3 (2020): 147–64.
  • Malzer, Michael. “The Rural–Urban Fringes in the Local Limelight: Urban Village Redevelopment in Yinchuan, Ningxia.” Journal of Current Chinese Affairs 49, no. 3 (December 2020): 357–77. https://doi.org/10.1177/1868102620912094.
  • Malzer, Michael. Book Review: “Jie Guo: Reshaping Chinese Cities: Neoliberal Transition, Embedded Contestation, and Urban Renewal of Lanzhou.” Asien: The German Journal on Contemporary Asia 160/161 (2021): 241–43.
  • Malzer, Michael. “Reflections on the Winter Olympics in Beijing 2022.” Media Studies Asia 28.02.2022. https://www.mediastudies.asia/reflections-on-the-winter-olympics-in-beijing-2022-essay-by-michael-malzer/ 
  • Malzer, Michael. “From Arabian Nights to China’s Bordeaux: Wine, Local Identity, and Ningxia’s Place within the Chinese Nation.” Asien: The German Journal on Contemporary Asia 164/165 (2022): 96–116. https://doi.org/10.11588/ASIEN.2022.164/165.22665.
  • Malzer, Michael. “Identität und Raum.” In: China: Geographien einer Weltmacht, edited by Sina Hardakerand Peter Dannenberg, 165–73. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 2023. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-66560-2_18.
  • Alpermann, Björn, and Michael Malzer. “‘In Other News’: China’s International Media Strategy on Xinjiang—CGTN and New China TV on YouTube.” Modern China 50, no. 2 (March 2024): 135– 78. https://doi.org/10.1177/00977004231169008.