Talk:Abhisit Vejjajiva

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A news item involving Abhisit Vejjajiva was featured on Wikipedia's Main Page in the In the news section on 15 December 2008.

Wikipedia

Trivia

Someone deleted two notes of trivia in the "Trivia" section. The first noted that Abhisit was an avid football fan. The second noted that Abhisit liked rock music, namely R.E.M.]. These are both taken from Abhisit's personal biography page. I'd argue that in a wikipedia biographical article, trivia like this serves some purpose, namely shedding light on Abhisit's personal character and demographics. While many older Thai politicians gain patronage from sponsoring Muay Thai matches and like to karaoke to Suntharaphorn and other 50's singers, Abhisit is relatively young, and his hobbies and interests reflect that youth. Patiwat 20:19, 1 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

If matters are considered important, they should go in the body of the article. "Trivia" is by definition trivial and therefore unencyclopaedic. Adam 04:35, 2 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Ancestry

How many generations do people of Chinese ancestry have to live in Thailand before they stop being "Thai-Chinese"? Most of the Thai upper and middle classes have some Chinese ancestry, since the two communities have freely intermarried in urban areas for more than a century. I think it is inherently racist, and intentionally so, to tag people as "Thai-Chinese" when they are fouth-generation Thais, and thoroughly Thai in culture and upbringing. Intelligent Mr Toad (talk) 10:48, 24 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Well, apparently there are those who think these things stay important for centuries. But whatever they were, the early Vejjajivas were fantastically long-lived, or amazingly slow breeders: from the 18th Century to 1964 in three generations! If the first Vejjajiva became prominent in 1799 at the age of 20, he, his son and grandson were all fathering kids at an average age of 62. Unless the family somehow turned Chinese after they became prominent...David K (talk) 15:33, 4 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

It depends on whether a given individual (or generation) is trying to hide ancestry, or flaunt it, or decides to make a claim to it, or can or can't live up to its standards. When flaunted, or just claimed, it is as much about ancestral memes as it is about genes. The Thai Chinese that I know flaunt it, otherwise, I wouldn't know that they're Thai Chinese (unless I see them eating: Thai Chinese table manners differ markedly.) Having never been to China, I don't know how the Chinese regard them (but suspect it is directly proportional to how much money they have, rather than their pedigree.) Racism works entirely differently in Asia than it does in societies in a snit about racism. Here, it amounts to maneuvers for economic advantage. What is it about where you are? Pawyilee (talk) 08:49, 17 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Well, the Thai Royal Family is founded by a Chinese. 86.136.143.199 (talk) 03:52, 18 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Image

If anyone wants an image for this article there is one at the Irish Wikipedia[1] RoyalMate1 23:17, 15 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]