The 45th seminar in the “Adventus Amicorum” seminar series, hosted by the Institute of Area Studies at Peking University (PKUIAS), was held on January 5, 2025. The seminar’s theme was “A Historical Perspective on Area Studies: The Case of Vietnam.” The seminar was hosted by Zhai Kun, deputy director of PKUIAS. The speaker was Yin Qingfei, an assistant professor at the Department of International History at London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), and the session was moderated by Huang Yuzi, a doctoral student at the Institute of Area Studies. Shang Feng, an associate professor of the Department of Vietnamese at the School of Foreign Languages, University of International Business and Economics; and Yang Yaoyuan, a lecturer at the School of Party Diplomacy at the Beijing Second Foreign Languages Institute, also participated in the discussion.

Yin Qingfei began the seminar by explaining the origin of the concept of “Southeast Asia” from a historical perspective. She emphasized that Southeast Asia, as a “borderland” of Chinese civilization, ancient Indian civilization, Islamic civilization, and Christian civilization, possesses an intermediary characteristic. In this region, no single civilization has been able to establish an exclusive dominant position. The academic debate over whether Vietnam belongs to East Asia or Southeast Asia reflects Vietnam’s “borderland” nature. From a historical perspective, Yin focused on the core issue of how to understand the north–south divide in Vietnam. The primary historical root of this divide lies in geographical conditions such as climate, rivers, and ocean currents, followed by social factors such as cultural influences and ethnic composition. The impact of Chinese civilization on the differences between northern and southern Vietnam, as well as the mixed ethnic population of the Mekong Delta region—including Vietnamese, Khmer, and Chinese—has shaped the complex situation in southern Vietnam, ultimately creating the region’s “borderland” attributes.

Zhai summarized the seminar, noting that Yin’s presentation provided four development directions for research on Vietnam from an area studies perspective. First, it is important to continue the academic tradition of PKUIAS by establishing a scholarly community for the study of Vietnam within area studies. Second, based on the disciplinary attributes of area studies, scholars should think about an area studies paradigm for Vietnam research. Third, a dynamic balance should be built between “specialized fields” and “interdisciplinary” approaches, providing doctoral students in area studies with enriched perspectives. Fourth, through interdisciplinary and multi-field cross-symbiosis, conceptual innovations in Vietnam research from the area studies perspective can be achieved.

Finally, Zhai expressed his hopes that faculty and students present at the seminar would contribute to the development of Vietnam studies from the area studies perspective, guided by the diverse perspectives provided by Yin.