Busk'In Southeast Asia!

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Introduction.

Busking widely refers to the act of giving a performance in the public for varying reasons. According to the Cambridge dictionary, busking is defined as "to play music or sing in a public place so that people who are there will give money". Indeed, busking in Southeast Asia is commonly known as a means of livelihood (by tipping). However, over the recent years, busking seems to take a different role. Besides being a source of income, busking has taken on greater responsibilities, such as the preservation of culture or as a form of art expression. It is commonly related to the concept of street performance and can be observed as a global phenomenon.

If you've travelled enough, you would realise that buskers exist everywhere! Be it in the Southeast Asian regions or even in the developed West, buskers play specifically diverse and important roles. Busking can take place in forms such as balloon-twisting, singing, miming, dancing, sketching and etc. Through Busk'In Southeast Asia, we will walk you through and promote some of these busking activities that constantly proved to be a great source of entertainment to tourists and even local passer-by(s)!

In this project, we aim to study the trends, objectives and rationale behind busking in Southeast Asian nations. We will examine the importance of busking in Southeast Asian context and also evaluate the cause of its prominence in the region. We will also want to adopt an 'opened approach' in the varying perspectives towards these buskers in the region (i.e. The Western perspective VS Southeast Asian perspectives of busking in Southeast Asia). In order for an in-depth study of the busking culture, we will be specifically zooming in on two countries, namely Singapore and Indonesia.

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Methodology

To effectively study the significance of busking and its importance in Southeast Asia, we will explore the various forms of busking activities in-depth by considering two different Southeast Asian context. As mentioned in the previous section, we will specifically study busking trends in Singapore and Indonesia, each representing a Southeast Asian developed and developing nation respectively.

In the course of research, we will first study the reasons for busking activities in both countries by the study of existing materials; books, journals, online articles, newspaper articles and personal accounts of buskers in both regions.

To establish the different perspectives on Southeast Asia in relation to busking activities, we will study the varying impressions that Southeast Asians and non-Southeast Asians(or more specifically chosen as Westerners here) have on the issue of busking. We will do so by :

1. Conducting interviews with non-Southeast Asians to understand their impressions on busking in Southeast Asia.

2. Conducting interviews with Southeast Asians from both Indonesia and Singapore to understand their perspectives behind busking.

3. We will interview local buskers from both countries to establish the "real" rationale behind busking. For the interview of Indonesian buskers, an online interview via e-mail will be used.

4. In addition, a short survey will be conducted on young adults between the age of 18-25 years old to better understand what busking means to this generation in Singapore.

5. To allow us to get better understand of what busking means to Southeast Asians, we will also consider videos as reference materials in this project.

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Insights to Busking in SEA!

Busking occurs prevalently across Southeast Asia. Busking activities are organised and conducted for various reasons. To examine the rationale behind busking and affiliated activities, it would be best if we could have an insight to the world of Busking in the region. We will first explore busking activities by watching the following videos!

Busking in the various SouthEast Asian Countries :

Hanoi:

Busking does NOT discriminate by age, time or education.

Here, we observe a teenager carrying out his 'Busking-Business' even in the wee hours of the night!

Jakarta, Indonesia

Busking activities on buses are rising trends in Indonesia! Busking is an activity that cannot be missed when you visit Southeast Asia (especially so for the less developed areas like in Vietnam, Cambodia and Indonesia). We will explore this trend and its significance in the next section!

Singapore

Even in the more developed Southeast Asian countries, such as Singapore, Busking is a bustling attraction for tourists, and even locals!

As we observe the three different forms of busking activities in three different parts of Southeast Asia(Hanoi, Jakarta, Singapore), can you identify any differences in objectives or ideals that they may have with regards to busking?

Pay close attention to the way they dress and the type of performance they engage in.

Do you think they may have different reasons for busking?

Although prevalent throughout Southeast Asia, busking seems to be a pretty much diverse. We do not know whether busking means differently to varying groups of people in Southeast Asia.

Therefore, we need to examine these differences very specifically to establish if there is a common or diverse practicing habit in Southeast Asia.

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