Chanchai Yomdit, a Muay Thai trainer and former kickboxer, believes Thailand’s national sport has international appeal and can attract tourists.
Many of his students serve as ambassadors of Thai culture through their work as Muay Thai coaches overseas. He also knows how foreign fans of martial arts dream of coming to Thailand for training in the “art of eight limbs”.
“Muay Thai has value. It’s culture and wisdom. There’s also the training aspect. [and] That is how it is passed down and passed down,” Chanchai told BenarNews. “It’s not just fighting. It’s a culture of influence.”
Thailand’s new government hopes to seize not only the sport’s popularity but also Thailand’s unique heritage of food, art and traditions in a multimillion-dollar campaign to project so-called soft power overseas. ing.
A campaign launched by the government of Suretta Tabisin. took power in SeptemberThe move is part of a broader strategy to create more jobs in the creative industries and bring back tourists, a major contributor to the economy, in Thailand, which has been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic. .
To find ways to promote the sport of everything from Muay Thai to Thai pork shabu abroad, the Suretta government has established a new body, the National Soft Power Strategy Committee, whose mission is to implement this strategy.
“We aim to create a better economy,” Deputy Prime Minister Surapong Subwongrie said in November when asked about the campaign’s goals in an interview with local news outlets.
“We are changing the way we generate national income. We used to rely on foreign investment and exports, but there is very little compensation available to Thai people. We want to be equipped with skills and creativity and bring those skills and creativity to the world to generate income for the country,” he said.
The campaign seeks to take a page in South Korea’s international strategy, which is known worldwide for cultural exports such as K-pop music, Korean barbecue, Korean neo-noir films, and taekwondo.
“Currently, there are about 40,000 Thai boxing gyms around the world. Thai boxing has grown organically in the world, but it would be better if there was a plan,” Surapong said. taekwondo It is popular worldwide thanks to decades of careful planning and support by the Korean government.
Surapong said the campaign’s soft power name comes from international relations theorist and Harvard professor Joseph Nye, who first coined the term in 1990, just before the end of the Cold War.
Nye’s 2004 book, Soft Power: The Means of Success in World Politics It sparked a debate about how countries can gain influence and spread their values and power through strategic persuasion rather than coercion.
Surapong said the government preferred the term “soft power” to “creative economy” because it had a broader meaning.
dream of soft power
Muay twe trainer Chanchai traveled to South Korea to learn how. Taekwondo is officially controlled by South Korea.
Domestic bureaucracy has long been an obstacle to raising Thai kickboxing’s standing at the international level, he said.
In principle, the National Soft Power Strategy Committee was established to eliminate bureaucracy.
Initiative Petontarn ShinawatraThe Thai government, headed by the ruling Thai Contribution Party, has established an organization to improve laws and regulations and support soft power efforts, officials said.
The committee has a budget of 5.1 billion baht (US$143 million) to be spent on efforts to promote Thailand in 11 areas: food, sports, festivals, tourism, music, literature, film, games, art, design and fashion. is given.
Recent initiatives include:Give Thai film producers a budget to participate in international film festivals. Eliminate censorship rules on Thai films to encourage creativity. Plans to issue special 90-day visas to foreigners who want to take part in Thai boxing classes in Thailand. Exhibition of Thai books at the International Book Fair. The bill also included a budget to hold the nationwide Songkran Water Festival in April.
The policy’s broad goal is to create 20 million jobs in the creative industries by 2027, which would generate at least 4 trillion baht (US$112 billion) in annual income, Peton Turn said. He spoke at the committee’s first meeting in October.
In December, Thai chef Chumpol Jangprai, who is a member of the committee and heads a Michelin-starred restaurant in Bangkok, said in December that the government plans to train “chefs in every village,” starting with 10,000 chefs in 2024. He said he plans to train an additional 75,000 people over the next four years.
In the future, soft power efforts will be managed by the Creative Content Authority of Thailand, which will be set up to mirror the Korea Creative Content Agency, Petonthan said in November.
the subtle art of persuasion
Thai film critic Kong Risdee praised the government’s efforts to support the cultural and creative industries.
“That’s a good sign. These things take time and effort to materialize. It doesn’t matter whether this policy is called soft power, creative economy, or cultural export; its purpose is to support people in the cultural sector. to support,” he said.
Despite the government’s high intentions, other observers have given a more cautious assessment of the plan.
“The budget of 5.1 billion baht is a small amount. If you want international-level results, you can’t invest on a national scale,” said Tamronsak Pethurathanan, associate professor of political science at Rangsit University in Pathum Thani. says.
“If you look at the state of K-POP in South Korea, [industry] If already constructed, significant ongoing investment is required. ”
Tamronsak doubted whether the campaign would have much of an impact globally, but said: “It could have an impact on the domestic market, and that would also mean the popularity of the To-Thai Party-led government.” Ta.
Mark S. Kogan, associate professor of peace and conflict studies at Kansai University of Foreign Studies in Japan, said the committee: The organization, run by Petonturn, became a way for her to “sharpen her qualifications for a cabinet position and later foray into high office.”
But he said soft power is most effective when it’s quiet, not loud.
“Soft power is often subtle and does not necessarily grow through government action, but through the values and culture of its people,” he said. “[It is] The ability to attract based on the validity of one’s own values. So no one said, “Hey, look how attractive we are!” “No one would go around saying that.”v
“Muay Thai is obviously attractive and should be promoted, but it’s awkward to say it should be promoted as soft power. All you have to do is promote it. That’s it. “