Negotiating Assimilation and Hybridity: The Identity of Chinese-Malays in Brunei Darussalam

Abstract

AbstractThis chapter explores the ways in which Bruneians who are born into a Chinese-Malay family define their identity. It details how the state classifies them in terms of ‘race’, how they negotiate their bicultural practices, and the day-to-day challenges they face while growing up in what we could term a liminal space of in-betweenness. Situated against the backdrop of state-level assimilation influence, the chapter discusses the ways in which Chinese-Malays negotiate between assimilation and hybridity. By articulating the everyday experiences of between and betwixt among these biracial subjects, the chapter reveals the various forces shaping the boundaries of exclusion and inclusion, belonging and non-belonging in Brunei Darussalam.