Qatari life is being rebuilt through tradition and modernization integration. As the country is evolving very fast economically, educationally, and technologically, there is a hold of old traditions that prevail on the character of cultures such that a model culture seems to be great because tradition and modernization overlap.
The most pervasive image of such cultural persistence perhaps is that of majlis—a low-seated, luxuriantly appointed traditional living room. Those rooms persist in the midst of family and communal existence, where the Arabic coffee and date rumor reconfirms such modest values as hospitality, respect, and kinship. Despite the fact that appearance and use have adjusted to appeal to modern tastes, its cultural meaning remains a part of daily existence.
Architect development of country is an ongoing process of balancing the new and the old. New cities are a sign of integration of newer sky-scrapers with buildings several centuries old. The new ones incorporate some elements borrowed from the Qatari culture but older souks in the nature of such action-packed centers for home and foreign products. The integration of the new and old buildings is evidence of the willingness of Qatar to preserve culture regardless of urbanization at a rapid rate in the modern era.
The country’s cuisine goes through the cultural shift as well. The old staples such as kunafa and machboos are defiant at home tables because the country’s cuisine opens its heart to the broadest extent to outside influence and innovative reinterpretation. Restaurants tread on a tightrope between new and old, being faithful to the integrity of Qatari cuisine but offering innovative dining experiences that it is safe for a demographically and globalized consumer to consume.
Education is also among the strong pillars for which Qatar is marching towards the future. Scholarship and culture are emphasized most emphatically by the Qatar University and Education City. With the blending of learning heritage and science, technology, and international relations, the graduates are equipped to achieve their task in current times but stands on sound cultural identity. This academization is one of the projects of a larger strategic plan by Qatar to serve as the knowledge and innovation hub of the Middle East.
There is a thriving life of culture with festival and arts programming. Production by Qatar Museums and Doha Film Institute is the setting for international and regional creative industries conversation. Productions such as these celebrate Qatari identity while critiquing that which pertains to all people, articulating the role of the arts in living tradition and holding vision.
Qatari culture has been a reflexive and balanced act of building, conserving, and accumulating. In buildings, in cuisine, in schools, and in the arts, Qatar has gone ahead and constructed half-new-and-half-old national identity based on heritage but attuned to the pressures of an interdependent world. In this syncretism, Qatar stands as an exemplar of cultural sustainability and thus as a nation aware of its heritage as it constructs the future.
