On the afternoon of 8 December 2023, the Sub-Saharan African Studies Research Group of the Institute of International and Area Studies (IIAS) of Tsinghua University hosted the third lecture of the Autumn Semester 2023-2024 on "Beyond the Method of Belief: Ethical Affinity and the Cultivation of Chinese Buddhist Spirituality in Tanzania". The lecture was delivered by Dr. Qiu Yu, a researcher at the Institute for Advanced Study in Humanities and Social Sciences, Zhejiang University, and moderated by Dr. Gao Liangmin, Assistant Professor, Institute of International and Area Studies, Tsinghua University. The lecture was attended by nearly 60 IIAS faculty members and PhD students, scholars and students from home and abroad, and others interested in the topic.

At the beginning of the lecture, Dr. Qiu started with the concept of ethnography of encounter, explained the importance of the methodology of studying the ethnography of the China-Africa encounter, and introduced the development of Chinese Buddhism in Africa. She then introduced her research question: "How can Chinese Buddhist groups position themselves and exert cultural influence in order to respond to the survival, life, and living dilemmas of local African societies? She analyzed the religious development in Tanzania, introduced the way Chinese monastic groups build and participate in the life of Tanzanian monasteries, and led the discussion on "religious persuasion", "bonding" and trans-boundary ethics from her field experience. Dr. Qiu concluded by suggesting that the transmission of Chinese Buddhism in Tanzania provides us with a non-zero-sum model of cultural transmission, which emphasizes an experiential, dialogical, and open approach, allows for multiple understandings, and is a "decentralized" and diffuse medium.

During the Q&A session at the end of the lecture, Dr. Qiu had a lively discussion with IIAS teachers and students, as well as other online and offline participants, on the historical lineage of Buddhism in Africa, the identity of Chinese masters in Tanzania and their motivation to go to Africa, the nature of spiritual service of Chinese Buddhism in Tanzania, the African community in Guangzhou, the relationship between martial arts "monks" and Chinese Buddhism, and the experience of field research in Tanzania.

Dr. Qiu Yu, Ph.D. in Social Anthropology from the University of Cambridge, is currently a researcher of the Hundred-Talent Program at the Institute for Advanced Study in Humanities and Social Sciences at Zhejiang University. Her research interests are in the fields of ethics, intimacy, migration and identity politics. Her research focuses on the “China-Africa Encounters”, and she has conducted fieldwork in China, Nigeria and Tanzania. Her research and commentaries have been published in Journal of African Cultural Studies, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, China Quarterly, Open Times, etc. She is one of the translator of The Subject of Virtue, the book has been published in Chinese in 2022. (Peking University Press, 2022).