Popular scenic spots are always accompanied by skilled street performers, who rove from spot to spot to display their superb talents. In Shanghai’s streets, people can also come across such kind of artists who are seeking a chance to play their fiddles, drums and guitars and create art in public spaces.

As the fifth Shanghai Street Art Festival takes place from October 12 to 20, artists from 16 countries have gathered in the city, performing their shows in more than 30 venues in eight of the city’s districts.

Since 2014, with the support of the municipal culture and tourism administration, street performing in Shanghai has made great steps. The launch of the city’s pilot program to regulate street performances and give performers more legal spaces to present their shows has updated the whole country’s management of street performances.

It is also delightful that two thirds of street performers now licensed in Shanghai are highly-educated young people born in the 1980s and 1990s. The forms of performances have also risen to over 30, including piano, guitar, saxophone, violin, cello, flute, ukulele, horsehead fiddle, dombra, erhu, and cucurbit flute. Other skills include intangible cultural heritage techniques like paper-cutting, Chinese knotting, calabash carving, tin can art, and wheat straw patchwork.

To date, the number of licensed buskers in Shanghai has increased to over 250, and they are becoming part of Shanghai’s city culture. While receiving the recognition of more citizens, they are becoming more self-disciplined. They have even formed a voluntary group to supervise each other, so as not to cause disorders or noise and be friendly to passers-by when they are performing.