Chinese Buddhism in Africa: The Entanglement of Religion, Politics and Diaspora

ABSTRACT

This article delves into the advent of Chinese Buddhism in Africa and its entanglement with politics and the contemporary Chinese transnationalism. It explores the previously uncharted territory of the endeavours of Chinese Buddhist organisations and the transnational elements of Chinese religions in Africa. Drawing on ethnographic data from South Africa, Tanzania, Botswana and Malawi, this article examines the mobility of transnational Chinese Buddhism, probes retrospectively into its origins and drives, and investigates its connections with the evolving China–Africa/Taiwan–Africa engagements. We argue that contemporary Chinese Buddhism in Africa is a product of connections and competitions between states, African politics, and the multi-layered Chinese diaspora. The political, social and cultural influences of transnational Chinese Buddhists in Africa warrant further exploration and analysis.

KEYWORDS:

• China-Africa
• Chinese Buddhism
• Taiwan-Africa
• Chinese diaspora
• transnationalism

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Perceptions of ‘old’ and ‘new’ Chinese migrants can vary; see Chen, Huynh, and Park (2010); Siriphon (2015); Zhou and Liu (2017). In this article, we consider new migrants to be those having left the mainland since the 1980s. In Africa, the delineation between ‘old’ and ‘new’ Chinese can date from as late as the 2000s.

2. Xuecheng was the chief abbot of Longquan Monastery and a former member of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference. He was also the president of the Buddhist Association of China from 2015 to 2018, before he resigned after allegations of corruption and sexual assault.

3. See Xingyun dashi quanji [Complete Works of Venerable Master Hsing Yun]. http://books.masterhsingyun.org.

4. Now the President of Tanzania.

5. When concluding this article, we were able to further verify the support of the Tanzanian government with a key Chinese businessperson who accompanied President Hassan’s state visit to China in November 2022. This person donated a land lot for the construction of Tanhua Monastery (Interview 10 2022).

6. According to our multiple interviews, by the year 2019, the number of Taiwanese in Malawi was less than 50, while the number of Mainland Chinese was close to 5000.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Xuefei Shi

Xuefei Shi is a cultural anthropologist and development researcher and a post-doctoral researcher at CMI (Chr. Michelsen institute), Norway. He received his PhD in development studies at Radboud University Nijmegen, the Netherlands. He has extensive field experience in East Africa, especially along the multiethnic Swahili coast and on the great island of Madagascar. His research focuses on China’s cultural, social and ecological footprint in East Africa. His work has been published in the Journal of Contemporary China and the Journal of Current Chinese Affairs, among others.

Hangwei Li

Hangwei Li is a senior researcher at the The German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS). Before joining IDOS, she was an associate professor at the College of Humanities and Development Studies (COHD), China Agricultural University. She received her PhD from the Department of Politics and International Studies at SOAS, University of London. Her research focuses on China’s political, economic and cultural engagement with the Global South (especially with Africa). Her research has been published in the International Communication Gazette, Journal of Modern African Studies, Journal of Southern African Studies, Journal of African Media Studies, China Perspectives, Journal of Current Chinese Affairs and the African Review, among other venues. Before her academia career, she worked as a journalist and researcher in Africa (mainly in Ghana, Zambia and Tanzania) for three years, and she received a silver medal from the United Nations Correspondents Association (2017).