Street artists offered permits to give quality performances.

On a cool summer evening last month, busker Jiang Xinrui crooned with her guitar on one of the most popular beaches in Dalian, Liaoning province.

Passersby attracted by her singing stopped to watch her, waving the torchlights on their phones to the music. As Jiang played, the sun set, a light wind blew and waves lapped gently on the shoreline.

The 25-year-old said she was not the only street performer on the beach, where typically several such artists can be seen each day.

This summer, buskers such as Jiang have been encouraged by the authorities in Dalian to offer quality street performances for local residents and tourists visiting the city, one of China's most popular summer destinations.

At the start of July, the city's culture and tourism bureau launched a project, calling for buskers to perform in public squares, on beaches, in parks and at shopping centers.

Zhang Baoqin, director of the bureau's art department, said although the city boasts numerous buskers, it was the first time the authorities had launched such a project to allow them to perform at certain locations.

"We want to enrich our city's cultural activities by inviting buskers to join in. We hope they can bring vigor and vitality to Dalian," Zhang said.

To receive official permits, buskers must submit video recordings of their work and take part in a talent test.

Zhang said the test is easy. It is aimed at assessing whether the buskers are in good health, and also the quality of their performances.

"Busking for at least one hour requires stamina. We also hope their performances are good enough to attract audiences," Zhang added.

The project quickly received a warm response from buskers in Dalian.

Jiang, who busks on the streets twice a week, applied for a permit, which was quickly approved. In July and last month, she sang and played her guitar at designated locations every weekend, including outside a busy shopping center, on beaches frequented by large numbers of tourists, and in squares that dot the city.

She started busking when she was in high school, drawing inspiration from a band performing on a street. Jiang said she trembled when she gave her first street performance, as she was so nervous.

Now an experienced busker, she places two barcodes in front of her for audiences to scan when she sings on streets. One is for donations, while the other enables people to watch her perform during a livestreaming session.

Online audiences

Every time Jiang busks in public places, she livestreams her performances, which usually attract audiences of several hundred.

In addition to singing outdoors twice a week, she performs online almost every day. Jiang said she enjoys busking, as she feels it is like performing in a small concert.

"People like to stop and watch me perform after they finish work. These are wonderful moments for me. Sometimes, they wave their phones with the torchlights on and hum along with me. I watch them closely to see how they react to my music. These sweet moments encourage me to continue busking," Jiang said.

She has about 70,000 fans online and earns from 30,000 yuan to 80,000 yuan (($4,113 to $10,976) every month, mostly from online donations.

Jiang writes many of her songs, which convey her experiences and feelings.

She wrote the popular number Dalian's Summer for her grandfather, who died in summertime. In the song, she includes many features of the city, where she lived with him.

"Before I sing this song, I introduce the city to those watching me online, as well as tourists visiting the city," Jiang said.

Dalian is a popular destination for its beaches and pleasant weather. Data issued by the city's culture and tourism bureau show that more than 3.7 million visitors flocked to the city during the five-day May Day holiday this summer, while during the summer, it accommodated tens of millions of tourists.

Thanks to the authorities' support for buskers and the city's strong appeal to tourists, musicians and artists are performing on its streets in increasing numbers.

Jiang said one of her friends, a violin teacher, busked for one hour every evening in the city's busiest square this summer after a day's work, earning about 1,000 yuan.

Li Xiaoxu, one of the busking project's organizers, said art forms such as street graffiti, body painting, folk bands playing traditional Chinese instruments while wearing hanfu (Chinese-style costumes in ancient times), and rock bands will feature on the streets.

She said Dalian has many buskers, some of whom were introduced to the public this summer.

Li attributes part of Dalian's busking culture to the city's 100-plus squares, where buskers often choose to perform. Many of these squares are near the sea or face beaches.

Chance to relax

Panshi, a local rock band whose seven members are part-time musicians, has busked in Dalian's squares since last year.

Wang Xianrui, the group's singer, works in the technology department at a molding factory. Two of the band's other members are also factory workers.

"Music offers us a chance to get away from our daily work. We enjoy playing it, especially when we busk on the streets," Wang, 41, said.

The band members practice in the evenings after work. Last year, when Wang saw a busker perform, he thought that Panshi should also play on the streets. The idea received warm support from his band mates.

"Performing in squares is very different from playing at live house venues or music festivals. It may be the first time that passersby have seen us. Attracting them and winning their applause is much more challenging on the street," Wang said.

The band's street performance repertoire is aimed at getting people to relax after a day's work.

Wang said he feels happy when he sees strangers — mostly parents or grandparents who are unfamiliar with rock and roll — enjoying the band's music when they take a walk with their children or grandchildren in Dalian's squares.

He said a vendor selling fishing gear in a square waited for an hour to see the band perform one evening. It was the first time the vendor had seen Panshi, and he stayed to the end of the performance, which he thoroughly enjoyed.

Wang said: "Life in cities is stressful. Our busking allows people to stop and take a break. Although performing takes time and energy, we really enjoy it."

As Dalian has many public squares, Wang added that the band's goal in the next few years is to perform in all of them.

Several kilometers away from the square where Panshi performed, Jin Zhongnan played percussion music with the trio Multiverse, watched by a large crowd that mainly comprised young tourists.

Multiverse has a large number of fans in cities across China, and Jin said many of these supporters fly to Dalian to watch the band's street performances.

Although the band members have received numerous invitations to perform commercially, they have continued to busk since 2014. Most of these performances are staged in summer, when Dalian welcomes large numbers of tourists. The band plays three times a week, with each performance lasting an hour.

Jin said buskers in Dalian have set up online chat groups to recommend performance sites for one another. Most of these sites are in areas that attract crowds of tourists.

"The city is really friendly to buskers. As long as we're not obstructing people, not creating a nuisance, or playing in a residential community, no one asks us to leave," Jin said.

In addition to outdoor performances, the city authorities have invited buskers to perform indoors, especially in public areas at museums.

This summer, a small orchestra comprising student and teacher buskers from Dalian Art College played chamber music with a string quartet at Dalian Museum. Even on a rainy afternoon last month, the buskers attracted an audience.

Li Jun, assistant to the Dalian Art College president, said that for years the city has cultivated citizens' appreciation for all kinds of music. It strives to "close the distance" with residents through culture, especially music.

"Apart from attracting locals, Dalian tries to draw young people's attention, and that's why the city launched the busking project," Li Jun said, adding that cities in northeastern China face the problem of young people moving to those in the south of the country, and Dalian is no exception.

"Street art and busking are good ways of attracting young people to the city, getting them to love Dalian, and persuading them to stay," Li Jun said.

Dalian is not the only place in China to promote street art or encourage buskers to perform in areas designated by local authorities.

Cities such as Shanghai and Hangzhou, capital of Zhejiang province, have granted permits to buskers offering quality performances for audiences at certain locations.

Li Xiaoxu, the project organizer, said she has visited many cities in China that have a busking culture. Questions such as how to ensure the buskers perform in an orderly manner, and where they should perform, have yet to be answered in these cities, but in Dalian, the authorities have taken the first step in this regard.

"We organizers and the performers are confident about the future of Dalian's busking culture," she added.

Contact the writers at dengzhangyu@chinadaily.com.cn