I revisited this article and realised it was trying to say many of the same things as my piece on Bruneian identity, only with considerably more words and rather less of me.
Rather than keep two overlapping articles, I have brought the useful ideas together in one more personal reflection:
What Being Bruneian Means to Me
It explores how tradition, faith, family and community can remain meaningful while Brunei continues to change. It also asks a harder question than whether tradition and modernity can coexist: what do we actually choose to carry forward?
You may also enjoy Ambuyat and Beyond: How Brunei Really Eats, which looks at the same changing identity through the food on our tables.