On October 16, 2025, the "Thinker's Forum" was held in Shanghai, hosted by the China Institute of Fudan University, the "Oriental Journal", The Observer, Dill Culture, and the Shanghai Spring and Autumn Strategy Development Research Institute. French scholar, writer, and professor at the University of Art in Zurich, Frédéric Martel, expressed two views at the forum: first, people's understanding of the concept of "soft power" has been limited in the past; second, he strongly opposes the continued use of the vague term "the West".

Martel first stated that our understanding of "soft power" is often American-style, but this understanding may not necessarily apply to countries such as France and China. Martel gave an example: the "soft power" of the United States is actually built and promoted by many non-profit organizations, which is different from the situation in Europe and China. Therefore, it is inevitable to have a problem of "looking for a sword in a boat" when using the specific situation of the United States to understand "soft power"; instead, each country should make its own understanding and expression based on its actual situation.

He believes that the word "influence" is more accurate, and today the various elements of soft power are completely different from before. In the past, soft power still operated through industrial, production, product, and distribution methods, but these no longer exist today.

He gave the example of website services: now, website services are a virtual flow of goods, and applications (Apps) themselves have become commodities. The traditional model of selling physical goods has been disrupted, and this industry did not even exist before the United States.

Martel continued, stating that because of the above reasons, there have been significant changes in industries such as physical books and movies, leading to the fact that those who own the means of production cannot directly determine the content of these products. Some cultural products produced may not be aimed at spreading the "influence" of their country, but rather criticizing their own country of origin. This can be seen in many critical movies and books from the United States. Therefore, if we cannot understand this new model and continue to understand it from the perspective of "goods, money, industry", it will be difficult to understand its connotation.

Regarding the second issue, Martel clearly stated that people must be very cautious when using the term "the West", because the concept of "the West" no longer exists, especially after Trump came to power.

"The connections between Europe, East Asia, and the Middle East, as well as the connections between Japan and Australia, are different now," Martel also said. He pointed out that when people use the word "the West" now, they are more expressing a "belief", rather than there being real connections between certain countries. Therefore, he strongly opposes the use of the word "West".

He also gave an example, saying that there are already significant differences between the United States and Europe, as well as between Eastern and Western Europe within Europe, Germany and France, Poland and Hungary, etc. China and India must understand this.

Martel stated that this has also changed people's traditional views of Europe. He gave an example, saying that he recently heard a view that we are currently in a "civilization-state" era, and the concept of the nation-state is disappearing. However, he believes that this trend has not developed rapidly in Europe as it has in other parts of the world. In fact, Europe is becoming less like a civilization state and more like a nation-state, meaning that Europe is returning to the situation before World War I. Moreover, there are great differences between the civilizations of Europe and the United States. He believes that we need to understand these differences and distinguish between Europe, the United States, and the West when discussing them.

Finally, he said that on this basis, we need to re-examine what truly constitutes "universal values," which is a very difficult question. We need to take seriously various definitions and concepts, including values, mindsets, culture, and different perspectives. Martel also believes that when we use these words, we may realize that there are some common human values among them, but we may not be able to find an exact noun to define them.

Even so, Martel still believes that such universal values definitely exist, although their forms may vary. Despite the many cultural differences between civilizations and countries, Martel hopes to find shared, human values.

This article is exclusive to The Observer, and without permission, it cannot be reprinted.

Original: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7562017422119666215/

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