A few days ago, from July 8 to 11, the SPLASH 2025 fair had invested the Halls du Parc Queen Sirikit in Bangkok. At first glance, the event looks like a national cultural fair as there are elsewhere. But do not be mistaken: this gathering marks one of the highlights of a concerted strategy of soft power carried out drum beating by the Thai government.
At the maneuver, the Minister of Culture Paetongtarn Shinawatra, heir to a political dynasty as client as it is influencing, intends to make culture a lever of influence, but also of growth.
A diplomacy by the arts: the 13 pillars of a national style
For two years, Thailand has structured its cultural policy around an ambitious program called “One Family, One Soft Power”. This plan aims to train millions of Thai to make everyone a cultural relay: craftsman, chef, masseur, jeweler, digital creator … Thirteen artistic or traditional sectors have been identified as strategic levers. The displayed ambition is simple: to replace Thai aesthetic identity in the global circuits of cultural influence.
A program that one might think inspired by the South Korean “K-culture”, but which is distinguished by its artisanal anchoring, its desire to codify a Thai-sensual, meditative, composite art of living.
Gastronomy, Spa, Muay Thai: a sensory grammar
The Thai cuisine, emblem of this aesthetic, is propelled as an image vector. The Thai Select label, designed to distinguish authentic restaurants, is reinforced. In the same vein, traditional medicine, massages, well-being practices become radiation instruments-a soft power by the senses, where the hand and taste import as much as the image.
The Muay Thai, an ancient martial art, is stylized, codified and promoted internationally as a body ritual with high identity value. International camps, combining sporting and cultural immersion, are offered to tourists and curious people. Far from the export of a raw sport, it is a staging of the Thai body, between tradition and controlled power.
A Minister Stratege
At the heart of this project: Paetongtarn Shinawatra, still Minister of Culture despite his suspension of the post of Prime Minister. Cadet girl from Thaksin Shinawatra, she directs this cultural policy with a rare constancy. In her opening speech of the Splash fair, she declined the five priority pillars of the Thai soft power: gastronomy, Muay Thai, jewelry, cinema and body care. Its objective is displayed: generate 25 billion euros within five years thanks to this new cultural economy.
Her style is sober, technical, but resolutely modern: she does not seek to folklorize, but to stylize the heritage, to give it a contemporary readability. There is a curious, almost French logic: that which consists in making culture a strategic ministry, capable of acting on the image, the alliances, tourism and even employment.
Cinema and cultural industries in search of recognition
In this global project, the visual arts are not forgotten. The Bangkok International Film Festival is relaunched, while a very generous tax program (30 % expenses of expenses) attracts foreign filming in the country. Labs of writing are set up to stimulate national production. Fashion, craftsmanship, digital arts are also integrated into this new cultural grammar.
The bet is daring: bringing out a global Thai aesthetic, while locally forming artists and craftsmen capable of dialogue with international standards. The approach is reminiscent, all things considered, the Mitterrand years, when France had made culture a diplomatic front line.
A strategy to follow closely
For art lovers and cultural diplomacy observers, the Thai case deserves attention. Rarely a country of Southeast Asia will have put so much energy to conceptualize its cultural influence. If the challenges remain numerous – bureaucracy, coherence of training, which is still a stammering international dissemination -, the intellectual and political framework is there.
Thailand does not only sell holidays and spicy dishes: it offers a story, a gesture, a sweetness-and perhaps even, an idea of the beautiful.
