On the afternoon of December 18, 2025, the School of Foreign Languages and Cultures and the Institute of Social Sciences at Jilin University jointly hosted the 1,277th installment of the University's Academic Lecture Series on Philosophy and Social Sciences. Held in Lecture Hall 500 of the Foreign Languages Building, the event featured Professor Lu Xiaohua, Dean of the School of New Media and Communication at Tianjin University, who delivered a talk titled "Working at the Strategic Frontier: Enhancing the Value of International Communication and Area Studies".
Professor Lu argued that the deepening convergence of globalization and digital technology has opened a pivotal window for rethinking the very paradigms of international communication and area studies. Researchers, he said, must position themselves "at the strategic frontier"—moving past the traditional work of translation and cultural introduction to engage directly with national strategic priorities and the shifting landscape of global governance. He urged scholars to tie their inquiries to major issues such as the Belt and Road Initiative, global digital governance, and cross-cultural dialogue.
The key to raising the value of such research, Professor Lu continued, lies in genuine interdisciplinary integration and methodological innovation. Work in international communication, he suggested, needs to be grounded in the political, economic, and social-psychological realities of the countries it studies, drawing on new media tools such as big data and social media analysis to gauge communication outcomes precisely and refine strategy accordingly. Area studies, for its part, should move beyond static description toward analytical frameworks that pair historical depth with strategic foresight—ultimately yielding policy-relevant insights and public knowledge that serve the country’s foreign agenda and foster mutual understanding among civilizations. Taken together, he noted, the two fields reinforce one another in the effort to convey China’s voice in the global conversation and to project an image of the country that is credible, appealing, and respected.
The lecture drew an enthusiastic response. Professor Lu’s forward-looking analysis offered faculty and students a clear path toward integrating and innovating across international communication and area studies, sparking fresh lines of inquiry. By deepening participants’ appreciation of the disciplines' strategic significance and strengthening their sense of mission in serving the nation's foreign agenda, the talk also laid a firm theoretical groundwork for interdisciplinary research and collaboration in the field.
