The 41st lecture of the “Adventus Amicorum” seminar series hosted by the Institute of Area Studies, Peking University (PKUIAS), was held on December 7, 2024. This forum, themed “2025 Frontier and Interdisciplinary Area Studies: Building Smart City in a Changing World,” was part of the framework of the China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS). The lecture featured the following speakers: Prof. Wang Dong, director of the Institute for Global Cooperation and Understanding (iGCU); Prof. Zhai Kun, deputy director of PKUIAS; Prof. Chen Xi, dean of the Institute for Urban Internationalization Studies at Zhejiang International Studies University; and Nurul Amillin Hussain, an assistant professor at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.

During the keynote session, Wang Dong presented on the topic “Globalization Processes from the Perspective of Cutting-edge Cross-disciplinary Area Studies,” focusing on recent reflections on globalization research. Nurul Amillin Hussain focused on “Global and Singapore Smart City Development from an Area Studies Perspective,” exploring the challenges and societal issues arising from smart city construction. Chen Xi delivered a keynote speech titled “Constructing a Meso-level Framework from the Perspective of Cutting-edge Cross-disciplinary Area Studies: Research on Global Smart City Development Guided by Regional Integration.”

Discussion sessions were divided into two thematic panels, moderated by Yang Liuchun, executive editor-in-chief of the Bulletin of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. More than a dozen scholars and experts engaged in in-depth discussions on topics such as the construction and development of smart cities, globalization, the challenges and opportunities of the Global South, the interaction between technology and finance, great power competition, and city diplomacy.

During the concluding remarks, Zhai Kun expressed his gratitude to all the organizers and participants, with special acknowledgment to the Forum speakers for providing multidisciplinary, cross-regional and cross-sectoral perspectives and insights into smart city construction. He pointed out that the Forum was highly forward-looking, with “Global Smart Cities” positioned at the intersection of the “two types of cross-cutting attributes” in area studies and the “application-oriented” characteristic. In the future, the construction of “smart cities” would be further improved and deepened in areas such as optimizing the indicator system and enhancing collaboration between academia and policy-making.

In his concluding remarks, Wang Dong stated that the Forum had featured intensive and high-quality discussions, fully embodying the interdisciplinary and cutting-edge characteristics of area studies. He emphasized that future knowledge production should focus on three core areas: innovation in thinking, innovation in theory, and innovation in policy. He also expressed his hopes for deeper academic exchanges and cooperation in the future.