What made him truly Thai?

A lot of popular Thai celebrities are half Thai, including actresses, models, singers, musicians, and athletes. The first year that I lived in Thailand, two international celebrities, who were both half Thai, visited the country. The Thai media made a very big deal out of these visits and the country was obviously proud of its “Thai children” who had achieved international success. I was talking to a coworker about one of these celebrities (a very well known athlete), who was half American/ half Thai. My coworker told me that when she lived in L.A. she used to go to the Thai temple and she often saw this guy at the temple before he became very, very famous. She went on to say that he was “truly Thai.” I found this very curious and asked how she could say that he was truly Thai when his father was American, he had never lived in Thailand, and he could barely speak the Thai language. I asked her, “What made him truly Thai?” She answered, “he feared his mother.”