A connection to the Buryat people, who are indigenous to Siberia, does not connect him to East Asian or Southeast Asian ancestry, which is germane to the discussion of portraying a Thai king.
Again, we get into the thorny territory of how "race" is determined and where we choose to draw geographic boundaries to connect people into a singular identity. If you want to create a very broad definition of "Asian" that includes the entire map of the Asian continent and any people who are connected to that map, then sure, Brynner was Asian. But that's a hell of a stretch, especially when part of what made Brynner "Asian enough" for the part were his own fabricated stories of his parentage. |
